JUDr. RNDr.
Jaroslav Chyba, DrSc.
Povodí Moravy, s.p. Brno, Czech Republic
Some negative experience
in the protection of nature and landscape
I.
Introduction
Conservation of nature and landscape as a part of
environment protection has become a major challenge to the mankind since the
end of the World War II. International treaties and conventions have been
concluded, both on world-wide and European level, the most important of which
are the Bern convention (wildlife protection, 1979), the Ramsar convention
(protection of wetlands, 1971), the Bonn convention (protection of migrating
animals, 1979), the Espoo convention
(activities exceeding State frontiers, 1991), the Aarhus convention
(information and public participation in environmental matters, 1998).
Environmental activities are generally highly
appreciated. However, there exist negative effects which have been widely
neglected up to now. Some specific examples of destruction of the environment
will be given in the following text and an attempt is made to draw some general
conclusions.
II.
Landscape preservation
The method of non-intervention is still considered as
the best tool of keeping the landscape in natural condition. However, this
principle works well only on a large scale, both in time and space. In
populated areas, as e.g. in Middle Europe, the system of non-intervention may
cause disasters.
A case history: the National
Park of Šumava (Czech Republic)
In the middle of the nineties, bark-beetles attacked
massively the forests in the Czech Republic. In most cases, the attack was
stopped by cutting ill trees, killing the beetles by chemical substances and
removing the logs from the forests. However, environmental NGOs opposed this
procedure saying that no intervention was allowed in the National Park. The
dispute of several months resulted in the decision of the Environment
Ministery: the Director of the National Park was deposed, the management was
changed and any intervention was stopped, thus giving free way to the natural
factors (including the bark-beetle). As a result, there is now a dead forest on
more than 60 km2, with dry trees, no birds and very little hope to re-establish green
forest within the next two or three generations.
A case history: The National Park
of High Tatra (Slovakia)
In November 2004, the forest was destroyed by a
hurricane on a large territory in the High Tatra mountains. Environmental NGOs
and administrative bodies from many countries offered their help. However, the
help has been stopped and the NGOs protested as soon as the Slovak authorities
ordered to remove the fallen trees from the forest. The point was identical
with the Šumava National Park: no human intervention was allowed in the
strictly protected territory, the Nature should live without disturbance. Since
that time, fires have occured regularly. In July 2005, 2 km2 burt up, the fire
reached up to the town of Polianka. There would have been less damage if the
fallen trees had been removed and the access was free for firemen, but
environmental NGOs and similar bodies insisted on non-intervention.
III.
Wildlife preservation
Endangered species of animals are protected under
international treaties, which have been incorporated in the Czech national
Nature and Landscape Conservation Act. The choice of endangered species has
been performed on the world-wide scale. It has not been taken into account that
some animals may be rare on the average, but highly concentrated in some
regions. In such cases, the high concentration may cause damage or even
disasters, because there are no predators, reducing the number of protected
animals, and the hunting is forbidden by law.
A case history: The European beaver
(castor fiber)
Beavers disappeared from South-East Moravia by the
end of the nineteenth century. One hundred years later, in 1975, one beaver was
seen on the Dyje river, above the confluence with Morava. Ten years later, in
the eighties, beavers became a real problem. They have caused considerable
damages on trees (Fig.1), which implies not only economic losses, but also the
destruction of nests of endangered birds, e.g. the royal eagle. Damages have
been caused to dams protecting settlements against flood (Fig.2).
Fig.
1
Fig.
2
The historic park of Lednice, which is under protection of UNESCO, has
been almost destroyed. Recently, the number of beavers in the forests on the
confluence of Dyje and Morava has been evaluated to some 600 animals on 45 km2.
The economic losses have been evaluated to some 3,6 million Kč, not including
damages caused to dams. The worst thing is that there is no legal defense. It
is absolutely forbidden to kill beavers. Some attempts have been made to trap
them, yet this is highly ineffective and, moreover, there is hardly any place
to which the beavers could be transported. The only solution seems to be a
change in legislation: beavers and other animals should be protected in the
regions where they are rare, but the hunting should be permitted if they become
overpopulated and cause harm to other animals or to the man.
IV.
Operation and maintenance of mines and water works
Mines, quarries, dams, water
plants and similar constructions cause significant changes in the landscape and
the water regime. It is quite correct to impose severe limitations on these
activities so as to prevent or minimize all possible damages. However, all
possible precautions should be taken before the construction or activity has
started. Once the mine, quarry, water plant has been put into operation, any
limitation should be imposed only as an extreme exception, granting at the same
time a compensation of economic losses.
Case history: Weirs on the Bystřička river
There are three weirs on the Bystřička river, East
Moravia, Czech Republic. They were built to stabilize the water flow and reduce
erosion. Two of the weirs suffered damage from the flood in 1997. The nature
preservation authorities opposed the reparation saying that the flow had to be
free for fish. The problem is that the authorities are neither qualified nor
entitled to find any other technical solution: in fact, in that specific place,
no other construction is possible. Since that time, water erosion has
proceeded, the landowners have lived in a permanent stress and no reasonable
solution seems to be available.
A case history: The quarry of Křtiny
In the seventies and eighties, quartzite was
exploited in the quarry of Křtiny, some 10 km NE from the town of Brno. The
exploitation has been interrupted since the nineties. During that time, the
quarry became domicile of salamanders, frogs and other animals. However, the
legal position of the place has not changed, all fees have been paid regularly,
all security measures have been met etc. Moreover, it is clear that protected
plants and animals would never have appeared if there were no quarry. Their
occurence was caused by the lake on the bottom together with the rocks of the
quarry. However, once protected animals had appeared, any economic activities
became impossible. Thus the mining society was punished for having created
favourable conditions to the protected animals and plants.
V.
Public participation in environmental decision
Under the Aarhus convention (Convention on Access to
Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in
Environmental Matters) members of the public concerned have access to a review
procedure before a court of law to challenge the substantive and procedural
legality of any decision. To this end, the interest of any non-governmental
organization shall be deemed sufficient.
The problem is that the NGOs need not have any special knowledge nor responsability for the result. Their legal position is not strong enough to impose a specific solution, but they are entitled to use all possible remedies against any decision, so any solution is only temporary and still contestable. It should be noted that the „public„ is a fuzzy notion. Not only their aims may change, but also individual groups appear and disappear and it is difficult to reach a reasonable agreement. Many times, appeals and complaints are produced whose only aim is to make the concerned group more visible.
A case history: The lakes of Nové
Mlýny
The construction of three artificial lakes on the
Dyje river, in South Moravia, has started in 1972. Their purpose is to keep
water in the otherwise arid land, to irrigate fields and wineyards and
stabilize the flow. Other positive effects are e.g. fishing, water sports and
use of water energy. NGOs opposed the lakes since the beginning saying that
valuable pieces of nature would disappear below the water. As a compromise, the
water level was first decreased from 170,60 to 170,35 m. At this moment, other
groups required artificial islands so that reptiles and amphibians could get
from one side to another. Again, this requirement was met, even though it was
necessary to decrease the water level to 169,50m which caused serious hygienic problems due to a very small
remaining volume of water.
In 1994, the middle lake was declared natural reserve
as a nesting area of rare water birds. Obviously, the water birds would not
nest there if the lakes did not exist. However, the occurence of wild birds
became one more point of argument to keep the water level as low as possible.
As the last possible compromise, the water level has been kept at 167,00 m, yet
the NGOs require 169,50 m, thus the same level, which caused serious harm to
the environment. It is difficult to define a legal limit for the participation
of various environmental organizations in the decision-making. However, some
limit should exist so as to enforce the opinion of local inhabitants against
the environmental organizations which do not live in the place. In this
specific case, the local inhabitants would agree with keeping the water level
as high as possible, but their voice is hardly heard while the NGOs have access
to all media and authorities. The situation is still open and several trials
have been initiated.
VI.
Conclusion
Preservation of the nature has become a political
topic, which includes many adverse effects. Many times, problems are produced quite
wilfully. This is a pity, since preservation of nature is of course very
important for the mankind. The solution may be found emphasizing democratic
principles in decision-making, i.e.
more influence in the decision-making process should be granted to the
persons and organizations who are directly concerned by the decision. The rate
of impact is a point of discussion, the problem could be mathematically
described as a cluster analysis on fuzzy sets.
On the other hand, expert decision must be applied whenever
the aim may be described by measurable units, e. g. the quality of water.
In the Czech law, priority of the nature preservation
is implied by the Nature and Landscape Preservation Act which is declared as a
special law relatively to the Building Act, Water Management Act, Forest Act
and others. This absolute priority of the nature preservation is very
cumbersome in practice (see the beaver case) and it should be replaced by a
reasonable equilibrium between the man´s needs and the nature preservation.
The most difficult problem seems to be the fuzzy
character of the notion „nature„ itself. Nature involves animals and plants
living in a permanent competition and if the list of protected animals and
plants is sufficiently large, the administrative bodies and NGOs of all kinds
have the playground open to an absolute wilfulness. Any human activity may be
classified as doing harm to some piece of nature. Even the non-activity may be
harmful, as I have mentioned above (the Šumava case). The legislation should
equilibrate the preservation of nature with the protection of the legal status.
JUDr. RNDr. Jaroslav Chyba, DrSc.,
Povodí Moravy, s.p., Dřevařská 11, 601 75 Brno
Phone: (++420) 541 637 388,
e-mail : chyba@povodi.cz