Institutional Options for the Conservation of Biodiversity: Evidence from the Czech Republic

Abstract

"The paper concentrates on changes in property rights and policies surrounding interaction between agriculture and nature in the Czech republic. In the first part the recent situation is reviewed. The institutional and organisational features and their development during the transition and recent years are illustrated on the case study on the White Carpathian protected landscape area. The key point in conservation in the White Carpathians (as in the number of other marginal areas) is to maintain grassland management in large scale. While environmental policy lacks measures for maintaining grassland management, the agricultural policy launched respective incentives, however, without sufficient environmental concern. There are two other problem areas hampering efficient organisation of conservation: outstanding land reform problems and little involvement of local population in determining conservation priorities.

"In the second part, the paper examines three policy options for enhancing sustainability of the organisation of the provision of landscape and biodiversity on farmland. The policy options are proposed each reflecting the identified problems in the White Carpathian case study."