International congress calls for stepped up conservation steps at Šumava National Park

Czech authorities have been given an international warning that they must take urgent steps to safeguard the Šumava National Park’s worldwide recognition as a national park. A resolution adopted by the ongoing meeting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature set out two conditions for the park to retain its international status. The first is that the so-called non- intervention area where nature is left alone with the minimum of human activity should cover 30 percent of the national park. The area of minimal human activity should be widened to 50 percent of the park by 2030, it added. The IUCN previously condemned past park management which opened up the park to extensive logging activities. The Czech Ministry of Environment said later that it did not take the resolution as a demand that management of the park be radically changed.