Contens:
• A bit of history...
• The first BRs - 1977
• Developing the Network
• Legal Status of the BRs

A bit of history...

Czech biosphere reserves came into being within the geographic and political context of the former Czechoslovakia. The first Czechoslovak National UNESCO/MAB Committee was made up of Czech and Slovak ecologists, limnologists, conservationists, and silviculturists. It appointed work commissions for most of the 14 projects originally included in the MAB Programme. Among the rank of Czech scientists specialists were found even for exotic projects (tropical forests, arid areas) and invited to sit on the central panels. The national work commissions, however, worked intensively only in the scientific fields of the temperate forest, meadow ecosystems, nature reserves, human perception, and ecological education.

Project MAB No.2 (forests of the temperate zone) found in Czechoslovakia a coordination center that had been run for decades by a team of foresters from the Brno Faculty of Forestry. It was soon found that cooperation was best where the scientific and organizational groups established at the time of the International Biological Programme (IBP) were working. The MAB intergovernmental programme undisputedly continues in the best tradidions of its predecessor, governed in the nineteen-sixties by nongovernmental international organizations.

The first BRs - 1977

Oak in Pálava BR

The Czechoslovak National MAB Committee joined in the establishment of the World Biosphere Reserves Network in the mid-seventies. It must be confessed that there were certain difficulties and hesitancy in connection with the term biosphere reserve. The word "biosphere" could be understood to place emphasis on the earth´s zonal biomes (climatic climaxes) or on the diverse complexes of natural, seminatural as well as cultivated ecosystems. Suiting the first interpretation were naturally certain already existing protected landscape areas (PLA) and natural parks (NP), (the Krkonoše, High Tatras). The Czechoslovak National MAB Committee gave precedence to the second interpretation and nominated areas where, alongside natural ecosystems and examples of their considerate use, there were also insensitive clashes between civilization and nature. Emphasis was placed on the fact of whether the selected area had expert potential for ecological research and the implementation of conservation measures and whether it had specialists who could take part in follow-up international activities. In the end the outcome of this calculation was the choice, on the part of the Czech representatives, of Křivoklátsko and the Třeboň Basin; Slovak experts, after first selecting Malá Fatra, in the end decided in favour of the Slovak Karst.

Following approval procedures at the national level and central MAB organs, the said areas were proclaimed Biosphere Reserves by the UNESCO Director General in 1977 thereby becoming part of the global network. To the selection of the first two Czech BRs must be added that at the time of their official recognition as Brs, according to the Czech law on nature conservation they had not yet been recognized even as Protected Landscape Areas.

The Czechoslovak National MAB Committee had cogent arguments for its choice. (1) The Křivoklátsko area is an important landscape system with preserved mixed forests around the perimeter of a dramatic river valley landscape with posisive as well as negative examples of forestry and agriculture; thanks to the proximity of Prague scientific institutes it always had the potential for the development of contacts with foreign experts. (2) The Třeboň Basin is a complex of natural, seminatural and man-induced ecosystems that was exposed to great pressure on the part of ambitious branches of the national economy (fish farming, agriculture, gravel sand mining); in view of the location of scientific institutes of the Academy of Sciences in Třeboň and České Budějovice it had excellent long-term affiliation with international ecological institutions.

Developing the Network

Not till Czechoslovakia had had nine years of experience with biosphere reserves was the Pálava nomination made ready (approved in 1986). This addition was justified by the unusual biogeographic position of the limestone hills on the edge of the Pannonian basin and the existence of remarkable biodiversuty - the object of systematic scientific research chiefly by teams from two universities in Brno. Next to be designated biosphere reserves prior to the division of Czechoslovakia into two separate countries were the Šumava BR and Polana BR in 1990 and the Krkonoše/Karkonosze Bilateral BR, High Tatras BR, and East Carpathians BR in 1992. The designation of the Krkonoše and High Tatras as Biosphere Reserves indicates a change in the stand of the Czechoslovak National MAB Committee which originally considered the status of National Park sufficient for the purpose of dealing with the ecological problems of the said areas. However the structure of the World BR Network showed that these two areas cannot remain apart because their biogeographic importance in Central Europe is unequalled and because important bilateral projects are being carried out within their territory. The sixth and to date last nomination - already within the framework of the Czech Republic - was the White Carpathians (Bílé Karpaty) BR, which found itself on the state boundary and in this case brought to the fore emphasis on transboundary bilateral projects. This area is furthermore a typical example of an area which besides natural biomes also has artificial ecosystems (White Carpathian meadows) with extraordinary biodiversity under study by scientists; also noteworthy is the ethnographic wealth of this BR.

Krkonoše Mountains

The selection of areas in the Czech Republic to be included in the World BR Network was a very difficult task. In view of the great responsibility resulting from the ensuing foreign obligations the Czech National Committee was oriented from the start on submiting a lesser number of nominations. (For the sake of comparison: Bulgaria nominated 17 BRs already in the first period.) With the extraordinary biogeographic diversity (in 1996 Culek et al. differentiated 90 bioregions) and number of already established large protected areas (24 Protected Landscape Areas, 3 National Parks) it was disputable which should be given precedence. With the exception of the primary nomination of the "interior" Křivoklátsko area, considered later was a certain "international" qualification resulting from the geographical location on the national frontier (Třeboň Basin, Šumava, Krkonoše, White Carpathians); undoubtedly belonging to this category would also be the newly established Podyjí National Park.

A significant role in nominations was the amount of scientific information on the respective area and its application in management of the given area. Important were the contacts the management of the protected area and its expert advisers had with foreign experts and international organizations; these contacts facilitate the actual exchange of information, the passing of experience, and the organization of educational and scientific programmes resulting from inclusion in the World Network of BRs.

Legal Status of the BRs

From the time it was introduced, the innovative term "Biosphere Reserve" encountered the problem of legalization of its institution which in substance is not exclusively conservationist and does not have merely geographic and ecological parameters. The term

reserve in most cases refers to a circumscribed area whose regimen is determined predominantly by legal norms of nature conservation. All Czech biosphere reserves are truly geographically delimited and have an internal territorial zonation; however they are also defined as economic, scientific, educational, etc. categories. The individual zones would require a different legal status.

Generally sufficient for the core zone is the national conservation legislation (categories: natural reserve, national nature reserve, first zone of the national park). The buffer and transitional zones already pose a legislative problem because involved there is the matter of socio-economic factors versus property rights. In particular the general status of a national park need not comply with the tasks required of a biosphere transition zone.

A dim day in Šumava Mountains

Put repeatedly is the question of the relatedness of the biosphere reserves to the category of national parks, natural parks, and Protected Landscape Areas. In general it may be said that BRs territorially always partly or fully coincide with the boundaries of one or another of these categories. For that matter this follows from the Statutary Framework that presumes the coverage of BRs by national legislation. In the Czech Republic the overlapping of national categories and the BR category vary: the Křivoklátsko BR, Třeboň Basin BR, Pálava BR, and White Carpathians BR are territorially identical with the Protected Landscape Areas (PLA) designated according to Czech law. In the Šumava (Bohemian Forest) area the boundaries practically coincide with those of the PLA and National Park together (the biosphere reserve embraces the National Park), whereas in the Krkonoše the boundaries of the BR and the National Park category are identical.

Having identical boundaries, however, doesn´t mean they have the same standing. As stated above, BRs are part of the UNESCO World Network of biosphere reserves on the basis of an approval procedure and thereby enjoy the advantages of global cooperation and easy access to diverse sources of information. It also facilitates the exchange of publications and work visits to other BRs. Very ocassionally material advantage and grants may result from such acquired information and thus established contacts. One such example was the inclusion of the Czech BRs in the grant programme of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which, through the agency of the World Bank, promoted logistic and applied research pertaining to the conservation of biodiversity in three Czech BRs. The Czech National Committee´s endeavour, however, is that the knowledge and experience acquired in the BRs be quickly passed on to other large protected areas in the Czech Republic. To this end it arranges joint conferences, puts out publications, and organizes work sessions, for example such as the one held on the ocassion of the conference "Geo-bio-diversity of Šumava" in September 1996.