Please help us to save a wild national park in Europe

Šumava National Park, a key wilderness site in Central Europe, is under threat from a new law. We need your help – and we need it now.

Šumava

Šumava National Park is the larger part of, in words of IUCN, “the largest, best conserved and most species rich forested area in Central Europe”. It is a vital habitat to:

• capercaillie,
• lynx,
• elk,
• Ural owl.

Also, Šumava’s mountain peat bogs and waterlogged forest are a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Šumava is one of the best opportunities for wilderness restoration in Central Europe.

Under threat from logging and development

But the national park is under threat from loggers and developers. The current minister of environment proposed a special new legislation on Šumava, which:

• Opens some of the key wildlife sites to large scale clear-cut logging;
• Provides for development projects including a ski resort in the middle of a key capercaillie and lynx habitat;
• Explicitly says that development projects will not have to respect national park conservation anymore.

And the debate on the national park became the focal point in a wider political discussion about recognition of wilderness protection as a relevant government policy.

Upcoming vote

However, the draft legislation has met some resistance from other coalition parties, and from a part of the opposition. Since most political parties are divided over this issue, a lively parliamentary debate and narrow votes are expected. Also, Šumava became a cause célèbre for a large part of the Czech society and some key politicians. Now is the moment to act!

Advocacy

Hnutí DUHA, the Czech member group of Friends of the Earth International, has campaigned on Šumava for 15 years.

We stopped logging in some of the most valuable parts of the national park, and successfully persuaded several subsequent governments to ensure wilderness conservation – until the current minister’s U-turn. And we believe that we have a chance to win again. We will

• propose sound solutions;
• lobby parliamentarians;
• mobilise the public;
• co-ordinate a joint coalition of scientists, community groups and NGOs.

Will you help us, please?

We urgently seek funding to cover this work, because:

• foundation support has drained;
• the new government purposefully cut any work on wilderness from public funding.

In fact, our advocacy work is running out of money.

Advocacy budget for the next 12 months is € 43,400. We still need to cover € 30,800. Will you help, please?

Ilustrační foto