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Nature Conservation

Type of study Bachelor
Language of instruction Czech
Code 546-0316/02
Abbreviation OPP
Course title Nature Conservation
Credits 4
Coordinating department Department of Environmental Engineering
Course coordinator Ing. Hana Švehláková, Ph.D.

Subject syllabus

1. Environmental problems. Global climate change, historical context. Development of nature protection. Assessment of the effects of serious interventions according to § 67 of the Act on Nature and Landscape Protection.
2. Legislative framework for nature and landscape protection in the Czech Republic, international obligations in nature and landscape protection (international conventions in the field of nature and landscape protection). CITES. Links to other laws: relationship of legal regulations on forest protection, hunting, fishing, and protection and use of mineral wealth to nature and landscape protection.
3. Landscape, its development and use. Territorial system of ecological stability Significant landscape element - registration. Access to the landscape.
4. Landscape character, natural parks. Threats to landscape character. Care of landscape character. Examples.
5. Biodiversity, concept, meaning. Value including ethical aspects. Measurement. NATURA 2000. Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and their protection. Important Bird Area (IBA) and their protection. Evaluation of the consequences of concepts and plans on SCE and IBA.
6. Extinction (extinction), mass extinction, extinction episodes, species extinction and the present. Specially protected species of plants and animals. Tools for protecting species. Basic protection conditions, proving origin. Rescue programs.
7. Endangered ecosystems in the world and in the Czech Republic. Categorization of specially protected areas (SPA). Declaration and cancellation of SPA, registration of SPA. Management of land in SPA. Contractually protected areas. Temporary protected areas, compensation for damage caused by the declaration of a temporary protected area. Principles of management, management plans.
8. State administration in nature and landscape protection, public participation. Restrictions on property rights and obligations of investors. Measures to improve the natural environment. Participation of citizens and municipalities in nature and landscape protection. Nature protection bodies and their competences. Responsibility in nature and landscape protection. Entry restrictions, restrictions and prohibitions of activities, remedial measures. Public contracts in nature and landscape protection. Sanctions.
9. Succession and its stages, succession blockers. Use of succession in landscape creation.
10. Theory of invasions, invasive species, invasion routes and phases, consequences of invasions. Control and management of invasive species (types of methods - mechanical, chemical, combined), examples from practice.
11. Invasibility and invasion of ecosystems. Alien and locally non-occurring species in aquaculture.
12. Management in nature protection. Cave protection. Mineral protection. Protection of paleontological finds. Protection of woody plants growing outside the forest and permitting their felling. Protection of monumental trees.
13. Historical parks and gardens - historical context in the world, Europe and the Czech Republic, important parks and gardens in the Czech Republic, care of parks and gardens.

Literature

WILSON, E. O. a J. ŽĎÁREK. Rozmanitost života: umožní poznání zákonů biodiverzity její záchranu? Praha: NLN, 1995, edice 21, sv. 7
PRIMACK, R. B. Essentials of Conservation Biology. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 603 p.
VAN DYKE, F. Conservation Biology: Foundations, Concepts, Applications. Springer, Dordrecht, 2008. 478 p. ISBN 978-1-4020-6891-1 
WEBER, E.Invasive Plant Species of the World: A Reference Guide to Environmental Weeds.2003. CAB International Publishing, Wallingford.

Advised literature

CAVE, C. and NEGUSSIE, E. World Heritage Conservation: The World Heritage Convention, Linking Culture and Nature for Sustainable Development. London : Routledge, 2017. 312 p.
PULLIN, A.S. Conservation Biology. Cambridge University Press, 2002. 358 p.
BANDARIN, F. and R. VAN OERS (eds.). The Historic Urban Landscape: Managing Heritage in an Urban Century. Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 262 p.
LOMBORG, B. The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.2001.