Podrobné vyhledávání v článcích

In May 2024, a public-law agreement was formally signed between the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA CR) and the majority landowner Štěpán Bečvář on cooperation in the management of one of the most valuable areas within Český les Mts. Protected Landscape Area, namely Nemanický potok/Nemanice Brook Floodplain Site of European Importance (SEI, western Bohemia). Pursuant to Act No. 114/1992 on Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection, as amended later, SEI is the term for Site of Community Importance, SCI, later Special Area of Conservation, SAC, under the European Union’s Habitats Directive). The Niva Nemanický potok/Nemanice Brook Floodplain SEI has official label as CZ0324026.

The area above the confluence of the Morava River and the Dyje/Thaya River (South Moravia) is unique in many respects. By Central European (indeed European) standards, it is an area exceptionally rich in biodiversity. The species diversity stands out all the more when one considers that the area in question is, in terms of habitats, relatively uniform compared with other national biodiversity hotspots such as the Pálava Hills, Podyjí/Thaya River Basin, or the Český kras/Bohemian Karst.

Water management interventions/modifications carried out in South Moravia during the 1970s and 1980s provided some benefits, but they also resulted into drastic changes in the area’s original conditions and character. They caused extensive environmental damage, either by the direct destruction of valuable habitats or by alterations to the hydrological regime there.

The presence of non-native Sika deer (Cervus nippon nippon) in the wild in the Czech Republic has been tolerated for several decades. Sika deer are attractive game animals, and therefore, the hunters have no interest in reducing their numbers. The undemanding and adaptable Sika deer has taken full advantage of this. In some areas in the Czech Republic, the invasion of Sika deer has reached such proportions that it is almost impossible to find a natural habitat without having been significantly damaged by them. The fact can be well illustrated by examples of long-term monitoring plant species and communities in the Slavkovský les/Slavkov Forest (western Bohemia).

Our predecessors—naturalists, local historians, and members of ornamental societies/ beautification associations and tourism clubs—took an interest in the landscape among the towns of Turnov, Jičín, and Mnichovo Hradiště, nowadays located on the border of Central Bohemia, northern Bohemia and eastern Bohemia, as early as the 19th century. But when did the name “Český ráj/Bohemian Paradise” first appear in connection with the landscape around the Trosky/Ruins Castle? For decades, it has been claimed that the name was coined by 19th-century Prague writers, led by Jan Neruda and Eliška Krásnohorská. They used to go to the spa of Sedmihorky for recreation, and it was there that the name “Český ráj/Bohemian Paradise” was born.

Dear Readers, Dear Colleagues

You are now holding the latest issue of the Ochrany přírody/Nature Conservation Journal for 2025 in English.  I would like to add that this issue is being published in 2026 when in the Czech Republic the “Year of Protected Landscape Areas” initiative under the auspices of the Czech Commission for UNESCO has been implemented. The Czech Republic has 27 Protected Landscape Areas (PLAs); the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA CR) manages 25 of them, five of which are commemorating significant anniversaries of their establishment. Protected Landscape Areas harbour diverse, unique nature and the landscape where fragments of close-to-natural ecosystems often join managed landscapes and cultural monuments as well (according to the IUCN Category V).