Ecological Archives H001-005-A1

Petr Petřík, Josef Fanta, and Martin Petrtýl. 2015. It is time to change land use and landscape management in the Czech Republic. Ecosystem Health and Sustainability 1:29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ehs15-0016.1

Appendix A. Roles of the platform on sustainable landscape management in the Czech Republic.

Scientific role

Scientific evidence is necessary for creating a vision for the landscape; the landscape policy and strategic objectives have to be based on an inventory and evaluation of:

• Commitments and recommendations of the European Commission, the Council of Europe and European Environmental Policy (Convention on Biological Diversity, European Landscape Convention, Ramsar Convention, Habitat Directive);
• Ecosystem services in the landscape and land use;
• Needs of ecological restoration in degraded and “unused” landscapes; possible ways of using abandoned landscapes (incl. brownfields);
• Preservation of cultural, historical and visual values of the landscape.

The research topics will be divided into two areas:

Biodiversity

• Impact of land use on biodiversity and indicators of biodiversity changes; collection of missing data on causal links between sustainable management and biodiversity loss;
• Social, environmental and economic impacts of different forms of ownership and land use and their relationships on biodiversity in agricultural, forest and urban landscapes;
• Flooding, river restoration and protection of endangered species;

Climate change

• State of scientific information needed to draft land use methods of adaptation to climate change;
• Options for tackling floods, storms, heat waves and drought prevention linked to climate change;
• Agricultural, forest, water and urban ecosystems as a part of the cultural landscape; economic assessment of environmental factors (erosion, organic material, water retention, nutrients, flood / drought, sediments) and green infrastructure; estimation of the water retention capacity achievable by means of soft restoration methods (landscape management), e.g., restoration of contour coppice woods combined with contour ditches, ponds, infiltration pits, wetlands, stream restoration, etc.;
• Vulnerability assessment of agricultural, forest, water and urban ecosystems, and selection of adaptation options to climate change;
• Research at the river basin level and finding out how to integrate the most cost effective environmental measures are the only ways how to decrease the impact of droughts and floods and how to assure a sufficient quality and quantity of water within catchments in the Czech Republic;
• Comparison of undisturbed catchments and long-term disturbed, altered catchments in the Czech Republic;
• System of effective measures for preventing eutrophication, erosion and excessive transport of sediments in the cultural landscape.

Coordination role

Integration of research results as a management tool for development and land use; coordination of governmental organizations will entail:

• Horizontal coordination / follow-up activities and cooperation across research teams (networking);
• Organization and management of research teams to tackle complex research projects at the national and international level;
• Organizing conferences and workshops with the aim of spreading (new) scientific information about the landscape and promoting cooperation in addressing major problems of development and land use;
• Coordination and monitoring of the state of landscape development, e.g., setting up a systemic, reliable and long-term scheme/programme monitoring the impact of existing programmes, particularly the Rural Development Programme in the Czech Republic for 2014–2020;
• International scientific cooperation in the field of landscape research together with studies of local/regional and international politics concerning land use and land protection.

Consultative role

Man-made/cultural landscapes of Central Europe are multifunctional. Proper functioning of each local landscape depends on the balance among three basic dimensions: the natural/ecological, the cultural/historical and the economic/utility dimension. Landscape planning is the right tool for establishing this balance in order to achieve optimum environmental services for the landscape as a residential area, for agricultural land use and / or for recreation. Expert knowledge and recommendations will be communicated to:

• Policy makers dealing with the landscape (landscape vision, regional development plans, materials for management development and land use) on the basis of available scientific information;
• Landscape users in the country subject to mandatory international recommendations and agreements;
• Stakeholders dealing with land-use planning procedures in specific territorial units;
• Managers, developers and users of local units with a specific mission (forest landscapes, protected landscape e.g., national parks, water protected areas, mining areas, etc.) – evidence-based conservation;
• Municipalities responsible for urban development.

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