1. Protected areas and National
Parks in Europe
The Czech Republic

2. The Czech Republic in Europe

3. The Czech Republic – geomorphological map
Krkonoše
Holice

4. Czech Protected Areas

5. Krkonoše NP

6. Krkonoše NP (KRNAP)
KRNAP is one of the most important protected
landscape areas in the Czech Republic and is also one
of the largest parks in central Europe.
Location:
 Krkonoše (The Giant Mts.) are situated in north-eastern
Bohemia.
 The state border with Poland divides the entire mountain
range into two parts.
 The Czech Giant Mts. over an area of 454 km2, cover about
2/3 of the whole area. Their slopes are more extensive, more
broken and milder than those ones in their northern Polish
part (with an area of 177 km2).
 The Giant Mts. belong to the western part of Sudetic
mountain system.

7. KRNAP
Total protected area: 605 km²
Krkonoše NP – 549 km²
Karkonoski park narodowy - (POLAND) – 56 km²
Altitude above sea level: 400 to 1.602 m (Sněžka)
The highest mountain: Sněžka

8. Sněžka 1.602 m

9. Sněžka 1.602 m

10.  Average temperature: +6°C - 0°C
 Rainfall: 800-1600 mm a year,
snow 150-300 cm (even 180 days a year)
 Snow avalanches usually appear in January,
February and March.
 There are springs of the biggest Czech river -
The Elbe (Labe), as well as of other rivers – Úpa,
Jizerka and Mumlava.
Rivers from the Czech side of the Giant Mts.
flow to the Nordic Sea.
 There are more than 20 of waterfalls (Labský,
Mumlavský and Úpský).

11. Avalanches tracks in Labský Důl valley

12. Avalanches tracks in Pramenný Důl valley

13. Mumlavský waterfall

14. History
 1963 – proclamation of the KRNAP
 1978 - the KRNAP - a member of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
 1984 – IUCN added the KRNAP to the list of 12 the most
endangered national parks of the world
 1992 - UNESCO Biosphere Reserve - it includes The Krkonoše
National Park and its transition zone on the Czech side of the
borders and Karkonoski Park Narodowy on the Polish side.)
 1992 - the project of the Netherland foundation FACE for the
preservation and restoration of the Giant Mountains forests
 2007 - the KRNAP - a member of EUROSITE ( a pan-
European network bringing together governmental and non-
governmental organisations, as well as private bodies, in active
collaboration for the practical management of Europe’s nature)

15. Geological evolution
 The most important for the Giant Mts. were processes
of mountain formation during the Palaeozoic Age –
600 millions years ago. The Giant Mts. belong to a
group of very old Hercynian mountain ranges. Only
the Giant Mts. and the Hrubý Jeseník Mts. rose above
the alpine treeline, which lies between 1200-1300m asl.
Other similar mountain ranges are hundreds or even
thousands of kilometres far away (the Scottish
Highlands, Scandinavian mountains or the Urals).

17. Zones
 The territory of KRNAP is divided into the four
categories according to quality and haleness of
living environment
 1st zone = strictly virgin ……………………4.503 ha
 2nd zone = virgin-controlled………………. 3.416 ha
 3rd zone = marginal / buffer-like…………. 28.408 ha
 Protective zone……………………………. 18.642 ha
 IN TOTAL ………………………………... 54.969 ha

18. The bilateral Czech-Polish Biosphere Reserve
Krkonose/Karkonosze

19. Flora
 is divided into four vegetation zones according to its altitude
Vegetation level with specific biotops:
o submontane: 480 - 800 meters above sea level;
leafy and mixed forests
o mountain: 800 – 1.200 meters above sea level;
mixed and spruce mountain forests, flower-rich mountain meadows and
mountain floodplain („tall herb meadows“)
o subalpine: 1.200 – 1.450 meters above sea level (the area above the
alpine treeline);
thickets of Swiss Mountain Pine, mattgrass meadows and subarctic peat bogs
o alpine: 1.450 – 1.602 meters above sea level (the highest and mutually-
isolating peaks – Sněžka, Studniční hora, Luční hora, …)
lichen, grassy and stony tundra

20. Flora – vegetation zones

21. Flora – vegetation zones

22. Basic characteristics of flora
 more than 1300 species of vascular plants
 glacial relicts: Arctic Saxifrage (Saxifraga nivalis),
Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus), Lapland Willow (Salix
lapponum), Sudetic Lousewort (Pedicularis sudetica)
 predominant trees: the Norway Spruce (Picea abies),
Swiss Mountain Pine (Pinus mugo), European Beech (Fagus
sylvatica)
 the most important botanical sites: Schustler´s garden
and Krakonoš´s garden
 the emblem of the KRNAP is a stylised flower of the
Milkweed Gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea)
 Swiss Mountain Pine can live to more than 200 years

23. Krakonoš´s garden – in the upper part of the glacial cirque „Úpská jáma“

24. Fauna
 also differs in accordance with the altitude.
 In mountain forests, there live red deer and roe
deer, fox, pine marten and stone marten, badger
and various species of birds. As for invertebrate,
there are especially numerous species of insects.

25. Basic characteristics of fauna
 invertebrates –at minimum 15.000 species (for example 74
species of snails, 123 of ground beetles, 168 of spiders)
 vertebrates - only one representative of cyclostomatous
- two autochthonous fish species
- six amphibian
- six reptile species
- 250 bird species
- 60 mammals species (the most abundant are
rodents – 15 species and bats – 18 species)

26. The submountain zone
Lilium martagon Saturnia pavonia
Dentaria enneaphyllos
Salamandra salamandra

27. The mountain zone
Glaucidium passerinum
Blechnum spicant
Apodemus flavicollis Campanula bohemica

28. The subalpine zone
Rubus chamaemorus
Lacerta vivipara
Eriophorum angustifolium Tetrao urogallus

29. The alpine zone
Coleotes atropos Primula minima
Luscinia sverica sverica Pulsatilla scherfelii

30. Threat and help
Flora
 The Red Data List – 244 species = 29% of the full number of original
(autochtone) vascular plant species of the Giant Mountains
 The most critical threats to the flora:
o industrial emissions (since the end of the seventies of last century, the
vegetation has been critically endangered as a result of decline in air quality -
acid rains = soil and water acidification
o changes in the composition of large areas of forest in the past
o draining and excessive manuring of the mountain meadows
o extensive building and assigment of agricultural land to non agriculture use
o insufficient management of the mountain meadows (cutting)
 help = national and international conservation projects
(i.e. revitalisation projects in the most valuable parts, the clearance of invasive
alien plant species, the project of the Netherland foundation FACE for the
preservation and restoration of the Giant Mountains forests, the World Bank
project for the preservation of the biodiversity of the Giant Mountains and
others)

31. Threat and help
Fauna
 Biotops devastation (e.g. large woodlands were extensively
deforested, …)
 non-forest species were affected by changes in farming (no more
traditional management on meadows in montane zone and above
the treeline)
 increase of water acidity
 help = consistent protection of whole ecosystems and habitat
protection – the best way to conserve biodiversity

32. Activities
tourism
 the first explosion wave of tourism and sports in the second half of the 19th
century
 many touristic and winter centres, foot and ski trails, hutches
 about 1 million of visitors a year
education
 the Giant Mountains Ecological Education Centre (KSEV Rýchorská bouda)
- cooperation with schools and different organisations
 information centres
research
 - conferences and workshops - i.e. from 1991 every three years the
conference “Geoecological problems of the Giant Mountains” (Czech-Polish
cooperation)
 - theses and dissertations
 - projects

33. Other interesting things
 KRNAP belongs to a group of the most visited national parks in the world
(to its relatively small area)
 many animals migrate over the Giant Mountains, therefore, many bird
species, which normally breed far in the north, can be observed in the
mountains
 glacial relics are the oldest living memorial to the Glacial period (Ice-age) of
the Giant Mountains
 the Giant Mountains are also unique among mountain ranges of similar
altitude as to the number and size of snow avalanches (there are altogether 64
avalanches fields, the longest avalanche track being 1400 m long)
 the Giant Mountains are a typical example of a structural relief in which
differences in the hardness of rocks in combination with high altitude
influenced the evolution of a prominent morphology (ridges, valley and rock
forms)
 the most endangered non-living part of the local nature are stone polygons
(stone rosettes), which were formed during thousands of years

45. Gentiana asclepiadea

46. Pulsatilla scherfelii

47. Veratrum lobelianum Neottia nidus-avis

48. Rubus chamaemorus

49. Vipera berus

50. Asio otus Cervus elaphus