Ministry rejects proposal to downgrade Šumava National Park

The Czech Environment Ministry has rejected a proposal by the management of the Šumava National Park to downgrade it from category II of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to category IV, the news agency ČTK reported on Monday. The management pushed for the downgrade to be able to extend logging areas within the park. However, the ministry also plans to limit the park’s non-intervention zones from the current 30 percent of its area to 23 percent. While environmentalists welcome the ministry’s rejection of the downgrading proposal, they said the plan to decrease the park’s non-intervention zone was shocking.