Podrobné vyhledávání v článcích

The trade in wildlife, its parts and products is at least as old as recorded humankind´s history. Without wishing to start thoughtful intellectual considerations we would like to stress that it had initially been a swap or a barter, later accompanied by monetary trade which consequently mostly replaced the former. Wildlife trade has recently been moving increasingly to the Internet. 

On Sunday 24 July, a fire broke out in the České Švýcarsko/Bohemian Switzerland National Park (northern Bohemia) which due to its extent will go down in the history of not only this National Park. Mainly dry Norway spruce (Picea abies) monocultures having been damaged by a European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) outbreak burned down, but also valuable ecosystems and a part of the village of Mezná were affected. The fire was preceded by dry and warm weather with record temperatures of up to 36 °C. At the time of writing this contribution, more than a thousand firefighters had been extinguishing seats of fire for 16 days, which is too early for an evaluation of various aspects. It has however already been obvious that the event will become a turning point in the attitude to forests in the Czech Republic. 

Thirty-year anniversary of the current Act on Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection is enhanced by an even older anniversary. In 2022, a century has passed since submitting the very first proposal for nature conservation act by the Member of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia Jaroslav V. Stejskal. Therefore, let us briefly remember efforts by nature conservationists and naturalists to obtain legislative nature conservation and landscape protection in former Czechoslovakia, then the Czech Republic.

A founding meeting of the National Platform on Ecosystem Services (NPES) was held within the framework of the integrated LIFE project One Nature in Prague in October 2022. The establishment of the Platform reflects a long-term development in ecosystem service assessment both in the Czech Republic and abroad. We are at present witnessing a shift in nature conservation goals and ways which have been increasingly including ecosystem services, nature´s contributions to people and in a broader context nature´s values. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the present NPES context and objectives especially from the perspective of plural natural values and ecosystem service assessment in relation to ecosystem conservation and restoration following the international context. 

On 20–25 June 2022, the jubilee 50th National Round of the Golden Leaf natural history competition took place. Not many youth competitions can boast of such a respectable age, so it is a good opportunity to have a look at its past and present. 

With its patronages, the Scout Institute helps scout troops and school classes engage in landscape restoration and nature conservation. In collaboration with expert guides and stewards, participants learn not only about natural values but also about the importance of building relationships with all stakeholders. In this way they develop two basic civic competences: responsibility for the condition of public space and awareness of the opportunity which everyone has to positively influence their environment. At present, patronages are running in the capital city of Prague and in eight regions of the Czech Republic. To date, more than 55 troops and school classes have been engaged in them. 

Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection came into force on 1 June 1992, so in 2022 30 years have passed since this most important legal regulation in nature conservation was adopted. Let us, from the position of co-legislator of the Act’s original version and current legislative lawyer at the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, recall some of the context regarding the creation of this legislation and evaluate its current state.

In the Czech Republic, principles of current special species protection come from the second half of the 1980s. They entered into practice by Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection, as amended later, and since that time they – except small adjustments due to transposing and implementing the European Union legislation before joining the EU- have not been changed. Moreover, knowledge has been significantly improved during the thirty past years and the state of nature and the landscape has also significantly shifted across the whole country´s territory. Long-term negative effects are currently amplified and multiplied by climate change impacts. It is clear that species protection tools have been in many aspects outdated and their effectivity has been insufficient. We are not able to halt species richness/diversity decline and loss and to effectively protect, conserve or manage habitats of the individual species as a basic precondition of their survival. A lot of necessary changes can be reach only by those in methodologies and approaches in performing State/Public Administration and setting out economic/financial tools without changes in legislation. Nevertheless effective protection and providing the most threatened species with management need new legislation dealing with Special Species Protection, conservation and management

Although the first national list of Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) was adopted by the Government of the Czech Republic following the country´s accession to the European Union in 2005, the question of its representativeness for species and habitats of European importance, and therefore the sufficiency of the EU Natura 2000 network of protected areas in the Czech Republic, has not yet been closed by the European Commission. Over the course of the Natura 2000 network´s existence, the Czech Republic has tried to deal with the identified shortcomings in particular with three major additions, most recently in 2016. Nevertheless, we are now awaiting another more extensive update of the national SAC list. The proposed amendment and the reasons for its development are explained on the following pages.

It is no secret that there hardly is any other issue in biology which has been full of contradiction as the species, whether as a concept, category or taxon in systematics. The continuing debate which set of individuals could be considered the species resulted in at least 35 various concepts: although most species concepts have strong implicit similarities and they in some extent overlap each other, some of them exclude others (ZACHOS 2015, 2018b). It is necessary to mention that many of them in the fact do not define what species are or should be but rather provide differently complicated approach how to delimitate them (MAYDEN 1997, QUEIROZ 1998, 2007, STEWART 2018, REYDON & KUNZ 2019). Taking into account the extent of the debate the following reflection offers only a glimpse of the topic from a point of view of nature conservation, not an exhaustive analysis.