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Current AffairsEnvironmental activists losing ground at Šumava National Park
The number of environmental activists holding a blockade in the Modrava
region of Šumava National Park to prevent felling of bark-beetle infested
trees swelled on Tuesday morning in reaction to Monday’s forced
evacuation by police. However logging continues and the protesters have
been losing ground, both literally and legally as a regional court and the
Czech Environment Inspection Office found nothing amiss with the
management’s policy. More
Current AffairsŠumava activists stay put as park warns of fines and damages
Environmental activists are into their fifth day blocking loggers’ access
to planned cutting in the Šumava National Park. While there has been no
altercation as yet between the environmentalists from Hnutí Duha and the
park management, the latter is firm on cutting right now to stem the local
bark beetle infestation. The director of the park says that for every tree
it cuts it may be saving eight others, and that another 30,000 trees are
otherwise in danger. As far as the environmentalists are concerned though,
the management has no permit to cut in the primary protected zone, where
they have positioned themselves, and are in direct breach of the law. As
police and the environmental inspection investigate who is in the right,
the number of protesters in the forest is swelling, as I was told by
Mojmír Vlašín of Hnutí Duha, one of the half-dozen activists who
started the protest last Friday. More
Current AffairsEnvironment minister scales back controversial plans in battle against bark beetle
The Environment Minister Tomáš Chalupa has changed plans by the head of
Šumava National Park on how to battle the bark beetle, issuing a decision
on Thursday that will still allow the manual felling of trees in the
park’s most environmentally-sensitive and protected areas but will ban
the use of heavy machinery or chemicals. Proposed intervention to fight
devastation by the bark beetle in the national park had been at the
forefront of a highly public battle between the park’s director, Jan
Stráský, and former colleagues, scientists and specialists who formed a
shadow council to express opposing views. More
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