Nature Conservation 1/2010 — 16. 2. 2010 — Research, Surveys and Data Management — Print article in pdf
Completing the National List of the proposed Sites of Community Importance in the Continental
evropsky významných lokalit pro kontinentální biogeografickou oblast
The article describes the individual phases of completing the National List of the proposed Sites of Community Interests (pSCIs, in Act No. 114/1992 Gazette on the Protection of Nature and the Landscape, as amended later, called Sites of European Importance) in the Continental biogeographical region in the Czech Republic, based on the requirements of the European Commission. For the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, the proposal was prepared by the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic (ANCLP CR). The Shadow List made by non-governmental organisations, put together in the Coalition for Natura 2000, was particularly used during the process. The document was developed in 2006–2007, was peer-reviewed and included the proposal of 252 new SCIs to be added to the National List. In 133 pSCI, changes in delimitation or aims of conservation were proposed. Although the Act does not impose it, similarly to the previous one, the proposal was negotiated with land owners, managers and tenants. At the same time, the proposal was also negotiated with the Regional Authorities, Prague Municipal Office and the selected respected sectors. In total, 3,833 entities were approached: 1,888 private owners, 1,668 municipal offices and 27 respected sectors, public administration authorities or area managers. 1,274 comments had been collected: most of them were accepted. Based on them, 42 pSCIs were deleted from the List and dozens of them were delimitated. Consequently, the negotiations on inter-sectoral agreements as an official legal procedure were launched. Because the consensus on 12 other pSCIs had not been reached, they were deleted from the List. The proposal was modified accordingly and it was approved by the Government of the Czech Republic by its Decree as of October 26, 2009, No. 1346. The National List approved includes 1,082 pSCIs, in total covering 778,174 hectares, i.e. 9.87 % of the Czech Republics territory. We suppose that new or changed pSCI from the Czech Republic will be added to the European List in December 2010. Nevertheless, the current National List does not meet the requirements of the European Commission, particularly because as a result of the negotiations on inter-sectoral agreements, some pSCIs were deleted, although the European Commission had required them to be included into the National List. Therefore, the warning from European Commission has been expected. Developing the proposal, consequent negotiations with key stakeholders and partially also negotiations on inter-sectoral agreements was a good opportunity to defend the high-quality, technically based proposal. At the same time, many legitimate demands of the key stakeholders could be accepted. After demanding completing the National List, which may not be definitely closed, even more demanding phase has begun: providing the appropriate management for the pSCIs.