The Journal is published by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic, the Krkonoše Mts. National Park Administration, the Bohemian Forest Mts. National Park Administration, the Podyjí National Park Administration and the The Bohemian Switzerland National Park Administration. It has been published since 1946.
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Nature Conservation 2/2020 — 2. 6. 2020 — Preface — Print article in pdf
Preface František Pelc
Dear friends,
Allow us to introduce to you the Ochrana přírody/Nature Conservation Journal, having been issued in the Czech Republic more than three quarters of a century. This is because the first issue appeared during a post-World War II euphoria already in 1946. The journal has experienced a lot of changes both in the formal and factual format since that time and it was issued mostly six or ten times a year. Surprisingly, many principal bases have been maintained to the present. The journal has always been aiming at professional and voluntary nature conservationists and at the general public interested in natural and landscape heritage conservation and management.
Of course, meantime the world has changed beyond recognition. Nature conservation has become a sophisticated branch of human activities with a strong position in public administration, non-profit sector, science, research and technological development as well as in the human society generally. That all, unfortunately with something of a delay, reflects a human society´s response to increasing degradation and destruction of nature and the landscape surrounding us. In addition, the Czech Republic also went through a forty-year experiment to build socialism where individual´s freedom and democracy were absent while on the other hand, the landscape was massively damaged and destroyed. Despite all the positive changes in the Czech Republic´s nature conservation institutional framework since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, there have been a lot of problems to be solved yet and at the same some difficulties have newly emerged.
Similarly to the whole nature conservation in the Czech Republic, the professional journal is by the content based on four pillars, namely knowledge provided by science, legal provisions, economic tools and communication with, education of and awareness among the general public and the target groups. Further, the journal regularly provides possibilities to exchange experience from international nature conservation. In this issue in English, we present the selected articles from the 2019 volume, reflecting the current topics in our branch. Special attention has been, is and will be paid to biological diversity conservation and management, protected area management and landscape integrity including water regime in relation to climate change.
For Czech readers, the Ochrana přírody/Nature Conservation Journal is issued six times a year with English summaries of main articles. On the webpage www.casopis.nature.cz, all the articles from this and each issue are available in the digital and pdf format free of charge. In addition to the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic and the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic, publishing the journal is also supported by all the four Czech National Park Administrations.