Podrobné vyhledávání v článcích

In 2021–2023, the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (NCA CR) together with the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, implemented a two-year project entitled as Strengthened protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in Armenia in line with the European standards funded from the European Union’s Twinning programme. The main project partner and beneficiary of the project outputs was the Ministry of the Environment of Armenia.

The damage caused to Ukraine’ s nature as a result of the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation started on February 24, 2022 has had a pan-European dimension and the consequences of hostilities for biodiversity will be seen across the continent. The network of protected areas in Ukraine is an essential component in preserving Europe’s biodiversity. The network protects mountain ecosystems within the Carpathian and Crimean Mts., key areas for migration and nesting of waterfowl on the coast of the Azov and Black Seas, peat-bogs, natural forests on Polissya, and unique steppe ecosystems on the East and the South of Ukraine. Protected areas are home to many wildlife species and represent different natural habitat types, some of them are unique within Europe including endemic ones.

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. 
All that matters is where you are going.
Brian Tracy: The psychology of achievement (2002) 

In international agenda related to nature conservation/biological diversity, the second half-year of 2022 was marked by a whole range of actions both on the global or pan-European level and in the European Union. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many meetings of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), i.e. hard laws, and of some United Nations bodies which should adopt their future direction had to be repeatedly postponed and rescheduled. Therefore, they heavily accumulated in the second half of 2022. The Czech Republic implemented its already second presidency in the Council of the European Union (CZ PRES 2022) just between 1 July and 31 December 2022, thus facing an unprecedented challenge.

Sediments of water bodies and peatlands harbour archives of the past. Investigation of them may provide information about what past ecosystems looked like. Which changes have natural ecosystems undergone over thousands of years? How have they responded to climate change or shifts in landscape exploitation by humans? Answers to these questions may help setting limitations to site management as well as defining a baseline for the natural ecosystem restoration. They can show us which changes have taken place in a particular area many times in the past and what, on the other hand, is an unprecedented present issue requiring active management. We will show the possible application of palaeoecological research in nature conservation on the example of the Březina Nature Reserve (NR) and Site of European Importance (SEI, pursuant to Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection, as amended later, the term for Site of Community Importance, SCI, later Special Areas of Conservation, SAC, under the European Union’s Habitats Directive), a unique wetland in the České Středohoří/Central Bohemian Uplands. It may be an example for other sites at which sediment elimination often destroys the heritage which may turn out to be a basic natural archive if carefully investigated.

Despite the considerable effort of scientists and conservationists to clarify all aspects of the biology of the Grey wolf (Canis lupus) and its expansion in Central Europe, various misconceptions and mistakes live on with the general public, which may lead to needless conflicts. The purpose of this contribution is to clarify the origin of Czech wolves in the light of the return of wolves to Central Europe, using the example of an area with a rich hunting tradition and of extraordinary importance from the point of view of nature conservation.

The Dyje/Thaya River, together with the Morava River, is surrounded by the largest and ecologically most valuable floodplain complex of Central Europe. By straightening its course in the 1970s and 1980s, the Dyje/Thaya River was shortened by nearly 3.2 km. At the same time, dikes preventing floodings were built on both banks along the state border stretch of the river. These measures had to stabilise the border between Austria and Czechoslovakia on the one hand, and to ensure prevention and control on the other. The whole border stretch being 16.5 kilometres long was for a long time closed by the Iron Curtain. After the above water management measures, there were more than 20 remnants of the original river bed were preserved in the floodplain: these are backwater river branches/cut-off arms or oxbows of various character. Over the years, however, all these fragments of the original Dyje/Thaya riverbed became strongly silted, thus developing themselves towards a rapid termination. The modified river bed caused by puncturing the branches displayed low morphological value and straitening the watercourse contributed to accelerating water outflow from the landscape there. From a point of view of climate change adaptation, this was an unsatisfactory situation. Therefore, the river management authority proceeded to restoration measures.

Since establishing the Šumava/Bohemian Forest Mts. National Park (hereinafter ŠNP) in 1991 game and its management have been an important part of forest management there. The first NP’s Management Plan (Kučera et al. 1992) dealt extensively with the issue. According to its authors, Red deer (Cervus elaphus) numbers were extremely high within the whole NP and keeping and breeding of trophy game was preferred. Moreover, it was clear at that time that due to red deer’s migratory behaviour its management should not be limited only to the NP’s territory but it should be connected with that on the entire Protected Landscape Area’s territory as well as with the whole Šumava/Bohemian Forest Mts. foothills including the Bavarian side. 

According to experts, the current European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) plague is unprecedentedly the greatest in the Czech Republic’s history: it avoids neither the Jeseníky Mountains Protected Landscape Area (PLA,) in northern Moravia). In the time full of changes and twists, it has generated a number of issues and questions for forest managers, nature conservationists, and the general public; it stirs emotions and it is the subject of media discussions, where opinions are often mistaken for facts. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the course of the European spruce bark beetle outbreak in recent years in the Jeseníky Mts. PLA, primarily through specific numbers.

In all expert analyses carried out in the last thirty years, the Podluží and the Dyje/Thaya River Floodplain Area below the Nové Mlýny Waterworks (South Moravia) ) was classified as the highest priority for complementing the large-size Specially Protected Area network in the Czech Republic. In addition to including the area into the European Union’s Natura 2000 network, its importance has been confirmed by declaring the Dolní Morava/Lower Morava UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2003, thus extending the Pálava/Pavlov Hills UNESCO Biosphere Reserve declared in 1986. Two Ramsar sites/Wetlands of International Importance stretch to the area and its significant parts are also protected by the appropriate cultural heritage legislation. Despite the national and international importance, only 2% of the extraordinarily significant landscape have been included into the Specially Protected Areas.

The Alpine treeless Krkonoše/Giant Mountains., mountain tundra with elements of Arctic tundra, Krkonoše/Giant Mts. tundra, and Krkonoše/Giant Mts. Arcto-alpine tundra are probably the most common designations for the 47 km² of unique ecosystem of international importance with a number of unique features; for example, geomorphological forms of glacial and periglacial origin, azonal habitats of glacial karsts, mountain ridge mires of a subarctic character, springs, dwarf mountain pine or subalpine and alpine grasslands, and with the presence of endemic species and many dozen glacial relics. The Krkonoše/Giant Mts. tundra is one of the most important subjects of protection of the Krkonoše/Giant Mts. National Park, which celebrates its 60^th anniversary in 2023. What is its value from the point of view of natural sciences and how is it currently changing?