The SAO scrutinized funds and state property under the management of national parks' administrations

Press Release – January 12, 2012


The audit aimed at funds and the property managed by selected administrations national parks, namely the Administration of the Krkonoše Mountains National Park, and the Administration of Protected Landscape Area and National Park Šumava, within the audited period 2009–2010.

In 2009 and 2010, both national parks’ administrations were provided by CZK 962,032,000 from the state budget. During the period, the amount of funds provided to national parks decreased substantially (Krkonoše Mountains National Park by 19 %, National Park Šumava by 28 %). The national parks are administered as state allowance organisations so they decided to compensate the funding drop by larger wood sales in 2010. Earnings from wood sales made CZK 800,844,000 in total in both the national parks altogether. But harvesting and profiting from sales are not main functions of national parks.

Under forestry legislation in force, National Park Šumava has handed lands over to municipalities. The owners of lands have been compensated for agricultural or forest management restrictions with substantial sums. (For example, the compensations in National Park Šumava reached over CZK 19 million in total in 2010.)

During the audited period, administrations of the national parks acted upon own opinions when deciding on crucial matters (e. g. which anti-pest management to opt for). Since December 1, 2009, when administrations of the national parks became state administration bodies, they are enabled to decide on ban exceptions. The peculiar decision-making process, in which the organisation responsible for management of the area asks itself for permission to breach regulations and has to follow own administration rulings, is based on generally binding regulations and rules.

As for anti-pest interventions, there are non-intervention areas, which cannot be linked with nature protection zoning. Act No. 114/1992 Sb. defines the first degree protection zone as strictly natural. But in reality, the first degree protection zone is not a non-intervention area as a whole, and there are non-intervention localities within the second degree protection zone. In National Park Šumava, there are 479 hectares of non-intervention areas in the first degree protection zone (nearly 5 % of the total area) while in the second degree protection zone of the national park there are 847 hectares of non-intervention areas.

The National Park Šumava Management Plan for years 2001–2010 specified 135 small-scale first degree protection zones. Such segmentation violates international standards for protected area management and international experts criticized this state already in 2002. In spite changes have been drafted since 2004, no transformation has been made.

The National Park Bayerischer Wald, which borders upon National Park Šumava, adheres to a different attitude towards nature protection. The Bayerischer Wald has set a firm target to avoid interventions in a compact first degree zone (which makes 75 % of the national park area) until 2027 and intervene in a strip 500 metres wide that borders with privately managed forests.

According to an international agreement with Austria from 2009, National Park Šumava intervenes against bark beetle in the first degree protection zone areas (formerly non-intervention areas), which border Austria. As of May 9, 2011, the strip extends to 500 metres from the state line. The reason of this was defined as protection of Austrian forests against bark beetle.

Within the audited period, the national parks were managed according to changing opinions of the current administration at Ministry of Environment, which failed to issue an obligatory conception of nature preservation. At present, the Ministry has revised the prior’s administration’s opinion on management of National Park Šumava. The Minister of Environment presented the new strategy to the public in 2011.

The existing legislation defines only general principles and lack specifications of particular national parks as all national parks share the same mission. When scrutinizing National Park Šumava as an example, the auditors concluded that there should be an obligatory conception of nature preservation applicable in national parks, which would define goals and target states for specific national parks as well as the strategies that would help meet the goals. Frequently changing conceptions may lead to uneconomical investments. The contemporary administration at the Ministry of Environment agrees that it is necessary to stipulate the binding principles of nature preservation in National Park Šumava through a special law.

The audited period was years 2009 and 2010; where relevant, the preceding period and the period until the completion of the auditing operation were also scrutinized. The audited bodies were the Ministry of Environment, the Administration of the Krkonoše Mountains National Park, and the Administration of Protected Landscape Area and National Park Šumava. The auditing operation was included into 2011 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 11/06. Zdeněk Brandt, Member of the SAO Board, managed the auditing operation and prepared the audit conclusion as well.

Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office

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