Choose the language version

FORESTS IN EUROPE

Nowadays forest area in the Czech Republic is nearly 2.6 million ha, what represents 34 % share of forests. On the end of 18th century it was 25.0 % and in 1910 that share was 30.0 %, what means that that forest coverage is steadily increasing.

The Czech Republic belongs to the smaller European countries (79 thousands km2; 10 mil. inhabitants) nevertheless it has a great variety of natural riches including quite diverse and rich forest biocenosis. Diversity of sites together with a geographical position of the country, which is situated on the crossroads of several phytogeographical areas, resulted in the creation of a wide range of plant associations including naturally predominant forests.

	FOREST CHARACTERISTIC AND FOREST TYPES   Forests in the Czech Republic were considerably changed in the process of colonisation and later on during the technical revolution. Their status was significantly change just by human impact.
	TYPICAL AND EXCEPTIONAL FAUNA AND FLORA SPECIES IN FORESTS The species and spatial composition of Czech forests was altered in the past in effort to increase timber production and to satisfy the demand for the most frequently required tree species, which resulted in the today’s greater share of coniferous (76 %) than broadleaved (24 %) species.
	FORMS OF NATURE PROTECTION SUCH AS NATIONAL PARKS AND NATURE 2000 SITES A part of the forests occur in special protected areas, demarcated in accordance with the provisions of Act No. 114/1992 Coll. Total area of forests in existing special protected areas (SPA) of various levels of protection are approx. 750 thousand ha, which represents approx. 28.4 % of total forest area in the Czech Republic
	ORGANIZATION OF FORESTRY Forests of the Czech Republic, State Enterprise (LCR, s. p.) manages most of the state forests (51% of the whole).

Czech Republic

© CILP - cilp.lasy.gov.pl

This information is aimed to give an overall view of complexity of forest ecosystems and forest resources in the Czech Republic, on its management, biodiversity and nature protection.
It was prepared using the material of so called Green Report of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic (www.mze.cz), Ministry of Environment (www.mzp.cz, www.nature.cz), Forestry Management Institute (www.uhul.cz) and reports of the Forestry and Game Management Research Institute (www.vulhm.cz). The useful web pages to share information are: www.mezistromy.cz, http://cs.wikipedia.org and other general public sources (data to Dec. 31, 2009).