The Prague Post
December 5th, 2008
Prague Property

New park director takes on timber

Plan for Sumava National Park prompts fears of reduced tourism, fewer forestry jobs

Some municipalities in Sumava fear dead trees will make their area unattractive to tourists; green activists disagree.
By Vanessa Bulkacz
For The Prague Post
25th November, 2004


The director of Sumava National Park has vowed to reopen old cases regarding illegal logging activities in the park, charging that, under his predecessor, too many complaints concerning the unsanctioned removal of timber have been suspended.

Meanwhile, residents of the area are caught in limbo, with logging jobs on the decline and the local tourism industry still developing.

While Alois Pavlicko, Sumava National Park's director since January, has made waves with his contention that most of the earlier criminal complaints concerning removal of wood had been wrongfully suspended, his predecessor calls that "nonsense."

Ivan Zlabek, whom Pavlicko replaced as park director in January by order of the Environment Minister, said he never called for the park to sell wood for money. "These [claims of illegal logging] are decoys for the public," Zlabek said.

Pavlicko countered that last year, incidental logging amounted to 300,000 cubic meters (10.6 million cubic feet) of wood, and this year only totals 8,000. That difference "tells you something," Pavlicko said.

Wilderness or jobs?

Residents in the 20-plus villages in the Sumava region haven't had an easy time during the 13-year history of the park. Because of its location on the German border, it was sparsely populated during the communist era, when residents were employed in forestry, farming and border security. Given that past, many still feel their livelihoods are linked to the forest.

Pavlicko downplayed villagers' concerns that less logging equals fewer jobs. "Residents' [employment] fears are out of proportion," he said, noting that he recently posted ads for logging jobs and just 13 people out of the 4,000 unemployed in the adjacent district applied.

Regardless, Zlabek contends that residents hold rights as stakeholders in the forest. "The social role of the park is as important as its conservationist role," he said.

Sen. Petr Smutny, head of the Social Democratic Caucus in the Senate, agreed. "It doesn't fundamentally differ from problems I come across among people in other municipalities," Smutny said. "If the problems of people inside the national park differ in something, it is the fact that they are under closer scrutiny because they take place on the territory of the closely watched Sumava National Park."

The park's function as a forbidden zone for more than 40 years left it largely unspoiled, which is exactly why some call for its protection as a wilderness area.

"Protected species need wilderness and unfragmented land," said Radovan Holub, Sumava National Park press spokesperson. He said achieving a "core" wilderness zone would require leaving a percentage of undiseased, dead trees standing.

Jaromir Blaha, forest campaigner for the environmental group Hnuti Duha, a Friends of the Earth affiliate, agreed. "Dead trees are important for animals, plants and fungi, as well as for soil nutrients."

Pavlicko recognized that leaving dead trees standing is a sensitive issue, increasingly so in terms of the tourism industry. "Local municipalities are afraid they will stop being attractive if they are surrounded by dead trees," he said.

Dead trees aside, the transition in local employment from forestry to tourism will take some time, said Zlabek. Because of that, the needs of longtime residents should be taken into consideration. "The park's approved 'Plan of Care,' which has been in place for four years, calls for a transitional period to last until 2030," he said. "You can't turn a lumberjack into a waiter overnight."

Outside involvement
FOREST FIRE

Alois Pavlicko was appointed director of 13-year-old Sumava National Park in January, replacing Ivan Zlabek, whom he says allowed far too much logging in the forest.

• Environmental groups applaud: Hnuti Duha and the World Conservation Union, along with new park management, are calling for changes in the park's forest-management plan

• Local residents unhappy: Local residents say new park management puts conservation concerns ahead of their economic and employment needs

The controversial logging claims have gone international since Hnuti Duha enlisted the help of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), an environmental policy advocacy group. The IUCN has suggested steps to ensure the environmental integrity of the park, with enlargement of the wilderness core area as the first step. Incidentally, Pavlicko contends it was the IUCN's report that cost Zlabek his job.

The IUCN's first recommendation, the enlargement of the "core" area, will be discussed at a Dec. 2 board meeting, Blaha said. Until the first step is achieved, however, the IUCN will not undertake a new mission to help draft a new management plan in Sumava.

In the meantime, the existing management plan, which according to Blaha allows for the clear-cutting of more than 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) within the forest, remains in place. "The problem now is that we need to change the management plan for the park," Blaha said.

Former park director Zlabek and others will watch this process closely. "If new management is working against the Plan of Care, or if the Plan of Care is being undermined, that's unlawful," he warned.

Blaha said he hopes results of a survey in the adjacent German national park, which he says show that leaving standing dry trees has not decreased tourism, would help sway the local constituency in favor of the hoped-for new management plan.

Some local property owners, however, remain unconvinced. Eliska Hasek Coolidge, who is vice president of the Gastro Zofin company, which organizes events in Prague's Zofin palace, and an owner of family property in Sumava, warned against an imbalance between nature and human needs. "We don't want to create a green curtain where an iron curtain used to be," she said.

Vanessa Bulkacz can be reached at news@praguepost.com




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