Social and Economic Conditions for Wilderness Protection in Europe: Case of Šumava National Park, Czech Republic

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 long-term 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.