Czech Government Rejects ODS Proposal to Boost Municipalities' Role on National Park Councils

The Czech government has come out against a bill put forward by deputies from the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) that would have expanded the powers of municipalities (obce) and regions (kraje) on the councils of the country's national parks.

The authors of the amendment argued that its main goal was to strengthen the role of local governments in managing national parks. According to them, the changes would not disrupt the existing park management system as such, but would systematically increase pressure to find compromise between nature conservation bodies and municipalities. Under the new approval procedure proposed by the deputies, key decisions affecting the parks would be guaranteed not to be made at the expense of municipalities' interests or conservation goals.

As one of the amendment's initiators, MP Bureš, explained, the proposed changes were meant to prevent a situation in which appointed members of national park councils hold a majority and can outvote representatives of local governments. In his view, this is precisely one of the reasons behind public discontent over the creation of new national parks. "The current leadership of the Ministry of the Environment has also spoken about something similar — reforming how national park administrations operate. Now they had a chance to raise the issue directly and discuss it in the Chamber of Deputies," Bureš said at a press conference.

Under the bill, if a council fails to agree on the content of a national park's founding documents, the parties would be required to make one more attempt to reach an agreement. Should that attempt also fail, the Ministry of the Environment would make the final decision after discussing the matter at a government meeting.

The Ministry of the Interior, while largely neutral on the bill overall, objected to this particular provision. In its assessment, it would be highly impractical and inconsistent with proper governance to turn the government into a body responsible for resolving highly specialized nature conservation matters — such as dividing a national park's territory into protection zones, designating quiet zones, or determining routes and trails.

In addition, the ODS deputies' amendment introduces a two-year period during which members of national park councils would be able to demand a review of the founding documents.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz