ODS proposes giving municipalities and regions more say in managing Czechia’s national parks

Deputies from the Czech ODS party, led by Jan Bureš, have submitted a bill that would strengthen the role of municipal and regional representatives on the councils of the country’s national parks.

According to the bill’s authors, the main goal of the amendment is to increase the influence of local self-governments on decisions concerning national parks, while the overall management of the parks itself would remain unchanged. The idea is to systematically build pressure toward finding compromises between nature conservation authorities and local governments.

According to the explanatory memorandum, changing the procedure for approving key documents should ensure that important measures within the parks are not adopted to the detriment of either municipal interests or nature conservation goals.

If a national park council fails to agree on the content of its core documents, the amendment provides for a second attempt to reach consensus. Should that also fail, the decision would be made by the Ministry of the Environment following discussion in government.

The ODS deputies’ bill also introduces a two-year window during which members of a national park council can request that the main documents be reviewed again.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz