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Current AffairsCzechs mull air quality at conference in Prague
On Friday, a three-day conference on air pollution came to an end in
Prague, organised by the European Commission. The conference was the
conclusion of a series of joint projects with the candidate countries to
study the air pollution related problems in the ten future member states.
Dita Asiedu was at the conference and brings back this report:
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Current AffairsCzechs supportive of environment protection projects
An opinion survey commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund shows that Czechs
are deeply aware of the need to protect the country's environment. A full
eighty percent of Czechs want more of the country's as yet unpolluted
regions to be turned into protected national parks and reservations, sixty
percent of the population would ban any lumbering activities in such areas
as well as the construction of new roads or ski-lifts. "The figures
are higher than expected, higher than those of many EU states, and we hope
that this will be a message to Czech politicians" Marc Niggemeyer of
the WWF told newsmen in Vienna. An expert on forest protection, Mr.
Niggemeyer said the Sumava mountain range in south-west Bohemia presented
a sad lesson in what environmental negligence can lead to. This may be one
reason why Czechs are so supportive of an environmentally friendly policy.
We called Vojtech Kotecky of the environment group Friends of the Earth to
find out how they felt about the results of the survey:
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Current AffairsGreenpeace protest in Prague against war
On Wednesday morning Greenpeace staged a demonstration in front of the
office of the Czech government in Prague, calling on the Czech government
not to support an American-led attack against Iraq without a mandate from
the United Nations. As government ministers arrived for a cabinet meeting,
they were greeted by Greenpeace activists lying in body bags and holding
tattered flags of the United Nations. I was on the scene and spoke to Jan
Haverkamp, the director of Greenpeace's campaigns in the Czech Republic.
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Press ReviewPress Review
As it does newspapers all over the world, one issue dominates the front
pages of all the Czech dailies: the prospect of a war with Iraq. The
headlines of all of the Czech newspapers declare that the diplomacy has
ended and the war will be decided on today, as the United Nations Security
Council votes on a resolution on Iraq.
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MagazineThe Czech Republic: a hunters' paradise
In recent years the Czech Republic is said to have become a hunters'
paradise. The country's pine forests filled with elk, deer and wild boar
keep the nation's 100,000 hunters happy and attract thousands of hunters
from abroad. While ten years ago the Czech Republic was a popular
destination for hunters from Germany, Austria, France and Italy - now
hunters come from as far as Canada, the United States and even Saudi
Arabia. The regions need money -and are happy to organize hunts for
foreigners. Even Princess Caroline is said to have attended a hunt in the
Konopiste forests and proved herself highly competent at the sport. In
many Western countries hunting has become a private affair for closed
societies. Here in the Czech Republic many hunting associations are
dependent on the income from wealthy foreign hunters, who are given VIP
treatment. Since hunting has always been a very popular pastime in the
rural areas the Czech hunting lobby is exceptionally strong and able to
defend its interests. However there's a downside to this - and Vojtech
Kotecky from the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth explains what
it is :
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Current AffairsGreenpeace call on Czechs to help save whales
There is a worldwide ban on commercial whaling but the whales still aren't
safe. Two countries, Japan and Norway, continue to hunt whales for profit
and they are pushing for whaling to be legalised again. Greenpeace wants
to ensure the two countries do not succeed in lifting the ban on whaling
through the votes of countries to which Japan has in turn offered more
development aid. Currently on tour around Central Europe, Greenpeace are
collecting signatures calling on the countries' governments to become
members of the International Whaling Commission in order to counterbalance
the votes of Japan's allies. This week, the campaigners are collecting
signatures around Prague. Pavla Horakova went to one of the Greenpeace
stands.
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Current AffairsCzech volunteers return from clean-up of Spanish contaminated coastline
Many of you will recall the sinking of the Prestige oil tanker just 200
kilometres off the coast of Galicia in northwest Spain last November.
Thousands of tonnes of oil leaked into the sea, killing hundreds of birds,
turtles and dolphins. Many of the area's fishermen are now unemployed, and
a 2,900-kilometre stretch of the coastline has been devastated. To assist
in the clean-up work, the Czech Republic's People in Need Foundation sent
45 volunteers to Galicia. After two weeks scraping oil off rocks in harsh
weather conditions, the biggest non-Spanish group of volunteers returned
home on Sunday. Dita Asiedu spoke to Mariana Serrano, one of the group's
co-ordinators:
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Talking PointEnvironment Ministry campaign informs Czechs of pros and cons of EU membership
The Czech Republic is one of ten front-runner candidates for EU membership
hoping to take part in the elections to the European Parliament as a
fully-fledged member in 2004. However, one of the areas where the
candidate countries, including the Czech Republic, need to catch up on
most is the environment. This involves including some three hundred EU
environmental laws into national legislation as well as implementing and
enforcing these laws, putting them into practice and making sure that they
are respected.
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Current AffairsHunters' hare-brained scheme under fire from environmental lobby
One of the less publicised effects of last summer's devastating floods was
a sharp fall in the country's hare population. Thousands of hares - as
well as rabbits - fled from the floods, which hit large parts of Bohemia
in August. And believe it or not the government is taking the matter
seriously: the agricultural ministry is to spend millions to make up the
shortfall. But not everyone's happy with the plan, as Rob Cameron reports.
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Current Affairs Czech Switzerland: drawing tourists for over a 150 years
It's one of the most beautiful regions in the Czech Republic, dubbed the
Czech Switzerland, an area of extensive quiet forestland, hilly
countryside and unique sandstone cliffs and river gorges that were
captured by Romantic painters in the 19th century. Two years ago the
region was officially declared a national park, and, as Jan Velinger
reports, it is an area that has been much enjoyed by tourists from all
over the world.
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