Archive: Nature | Ecology Ecology
New Šumava National Park head raises eyebrows with plans to downgrade conservation status
The Šumava National park is one of the Czech Republic’s indisputable
natural treasures. A vast 100km long stretch of forest running along the
south-western border of the country, the area has been protected since the
early 1960s and a nature reserve has existed within this zone since 1991.
But, the reserve’s new head Jiří Mánek has announced controversial
plans to weaken environmental protection there. More
European Commission weighs in on Šumava logging
The European Commission has asked the Czech government to halt logging in
the Šumava National Park. Czech authorities resumed felling bark-beetle
infested trees in Šumava this week to prevent the spreading of the beetle
infestation. But the European Commissioner for the Environment says logging
should cease until the government justifies the move. More
Radioactive Waste Depository Authority launches multi-million-crown incentive to win over municipalities for possible nuclear waste sites
While the Czech Republic relies on nuclear power for some 30 percent of its
total energy supply, the Radioactive Waste Depository Authority is facing
difficulties in finding new locations for depositing nuclear waste. As an
incentive for municipalities to agree to geological research on their
territory, the state-run authority is now offering mayors millions of
crowns. Sarah Borufka has the details. More
Fat from Christmas table clogs up sewage systems in cities
It is a well-known fact that the traditional Czech heavy Christmas menu is
a burden on the digestive system. Fewer people know, though, that fat is
not only bad for the gall-bladder and arteries but can also cause problems
to the sewage system. Especially in densely populated areas the sewer pipes
and sewage treatment plants experience something of a fat overdose at
Christmas time. The problem is faced by all cities and some have already
taken measures against it. More
Bison return to Czech forests after 200-year absence
Half a dozen European bison have been returned to the wild at the Ralsko
nature reserve, a former Red Army military training ground about an
hour’s drive from Prague. It’s the latest chapter in what is a
remarkable reversal of fortunes for Europe’s largest mammal. Hunted
virtually to the point of extinction, in recent years they’ve made
something of a comeback.
More
Future of massive clean-up tender uncertain
The future of the Czech Republic’s largest public tender is uncertain
after the Finance Ministry revealed that three firms had bid between 57 and
65 billion crowns to remove environmental damage inherited from the
communist regime. Prime Minster Petr Nečas, as well as several other
cabinet ministers are increasingly receptive to arguments by the
project’s critics who warned the tender might become the country’s
“largest single corrupt deal”. More
Science Journal
We’ve heard the politicians and the eco-activists’ views on the Šumava
– but what do the scientists say? And by the way, how do cells read DNA?
That’s what we’ll be trying to get our heads around this month on
Science Journal.
More
Politicians wade into bark-beetle fray
A continuing standoff between ecological activists and loggers in the
Šumava National Park is continuing to heat up. For more than a fortnight
now activists have been chaining themselves to trees slated for felling –
stressing that logging commissioned by the park in protected areas is
illegal. Under existing regulations, they have argued, trees in the nature
reserve must be allowed to decay naturally. The park management has
countered by saying that only felling will prevent further locations from
being devastated by the bark-beetle. The dispute has now divided senior
politicians, some of whom are calling for immediate talks to try and
resolve the dispute. More
Environmental 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
Šumava 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
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