Nature Conservation 5/2009 — 21. 10. 2009 — On Nature in the Czech Republic — Print article in pdf
Seeking for Water System Permeability for Fish in the Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic as well as in Europe, river fragmentation is one of the significant drivers, threatening survival of fish species, dependent on migration. Particularly transverse barriers on water courses are physical obstacles partially or fully impending migration of water organisms.
On water courses in the Czech Republic, more than 6,000 transverse barriers higher than one meter have been built. Therefore, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic and the T.G. Masaryk Water Research Institute prepared a draft of the document entitled as The Strategy on Providing Water System with Permeability for Fish in the Czech Republic. The document delineates from a point of view of fish migration important streams or their stretches at two levels: supra-regional priority biological corridors of international importance and national priority stretches of streams from a point of view of species and territorial protection. They are delineated with the occurrence of specially protected species or species protected under the European Community’s legislation, under Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic Decree No. 395/1992 Gazette and Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on the Protection of Nature and the Landscape, as amended later, for which the stream permeability is of vital importance, or with Specially Protected Areas or Sites of European Importance (in the above act the term for Sites of Community Importance, SCIs under the Habitats Directive) where such species occur. The Strategy draft, covering the period 2009–2027, sets three stages in providing streams within the country with permeability for fish which have been included into River Basin Management Plans. By 2013, appropriate measures shall be financed from EC funds, namely the Operational Programme “Environment”. After its closing, finances shall be provided from the Landscape Natural Function Restoration Programme, launched by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic in 2009.