175
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Westra et al. (eds.), Ecological Integrity in Science and Law,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46259-8_15
Social and Economic Conditions
for Wilderness Protection in Europe: Case
of Šumava National Park, Czech Republic
Eva Cudlínová, Miloslav Lapka, and Martin Šlachta
Abstract Wilderness protection in Sumava National Park (NP) is full of conflicts.
There are conflicts regarding the non-intervention zones, conflicts in relation to
periodically recurring bark beetle calamities and conflicts with a new zonation proposal suggesting to increase the area of non-intervention zones up to 27.7% of the
total area of NP. In general, all these conflicts described above are based on the
cultural construction of wilderness connected with the historical picture of Sumava
from the beginning of the nineteenth century. There occur some key duality points
that exist in endless debates about wilderness in Sumava NP. showing the power of
this cultural construction and its misuses. These dualities could be labeled as wilderness under human control. Cultural construction of wilderness in Sumava NP. is
static and it is based on consumerism. A long-term perspective is often missing in
the debate about the future of the Sumava wilderness. Patience with natural longterm processes is missing too. We suppose that case of Sumava National Park could
serve as an example how important is the knowledge of historical, cultural and
social-economic context of wilderness, for solving of existing difficulties and conflicts with wilderness protection.
1 Introduction
Nowadays we are used to speaking about the protection of nature, environmental
protection or even wilderness protection as something inseparable from our life.
The protection of nature is even a part of the 17th Sustainable Development Goal
(United Nations 2019).
There are three fatal questions—“what, why and how to protect?” The first two
questions “what kind of nature to protect and what are the reasons for protecting”
are dealing with societal values and our relationship with nature. The last question
E. Cudlínová (*) · M. Lapka · M. Šlachta
Department of Regional Management, Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia
in České Budějovice, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
e-mail: evacu@ef.jcu.cz; mlapka@ef.jcu.cz; mslachta@ef.jcu.cz
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Westra et al. (eds.), Ecological Integrity in Science and Law,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46259-8_15
Social and Economic Conditions
for Wilderness Protection in Europe: Case
of Šumava National Park, Czech Republic
Eva Cudlínová, Miloslav Lapka, and Martin Šlachta
Abstract Wilderness protection in Sumava National Park (NP) is full of conflicts.
There are conflicts regarding the non-intervention zones, conflicts in relation to
periodically recurring bark beetle calamities and conflicts with a new zonation proposal suggesting to increase the area of non-intervention zones up to 27.7% of the
total area of NP. In general, all these conflicts described above are based on the
cultural construction of wilderness connected with the historical picture of Sumava
from the beginning of the nineteenth century. There occur some key duality points
that exist in endless debates about wilderness in Sumava NP. showing the power of
this cultural construction and its misuses. These dualities could be labeled as wilderness under human control. Cultural construction of wilderness in Sumava NP. is
static and it is based on consumerism. A long-term perspective is often missing in
the debate about the future of the Sumava wilderness. Patience with natural longterm processes is missing too. We suppose that case of Sumava National Park could
serve as an example how important is the knowledge of historical, cultural and
social-economic context of wilderness, for solving of existing difficulties and conflicts with wilderness protection.
1 Introduction
Nowadays we are used to speaking about the protection of nature, environmental
protection or even wilderness protection as something inseparable from our life.
The protection of nature is even a part of the 17th Sustainable Development Goal
(United Nations 2019).
There are three fatal questions—“what, why and how to protect?” The first two
questions “what kind of nature to protect and what are the reasons for protecting”
are dealing with societal values and our relationship with nature. The last question
E. Cudlínová (*) · M. Lapka · M. Šlachta
Department of Regional Management, Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia
in České Budějovice, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
e-mail: evacu@ef.jcu.cz; mlapka@ef.jcu.cz; mslachta@ef.jcu.cz