Specially protected area (nature reserve, natural monument)

Specially protected areas (zvláště chráněná území, ZCHÚ) are designated by the state or a region under Czech Act No. 114/1992 Coll. on Nature and Landscape Protection as areas of great or unique scientific or aesthetic value. The Act has six categories: national parks and protected landscape areas (CHKO) cover large areas, while national nature reserves, nature reserves, national natural monuments and natural monuments protect smaller sites, such as a wood, a pond, a rock or a meadow with rare species. Protection conditions are set when each area is designated.

What it means for living nearby

A protected area nearby is mainly an advantage: well-preserved nature, walks and trips. Inside a protected area, especially a national park or CHKO, stricter rules apply. Building, alterations or landscaping may need consent or a binding opinion from the nature protection authority. In a CHKO this is usually the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (AOPK ČR), in a national park its administration. For projects permitted under the Building Act, this consent is usually part of the single environmental opinion (jednotné environmentální stanovisko).

The 50 m buffer zone

For national nature reserves, nature reserves, national natural monuments and natural monuments, the rule is: unless a buffer zone was declared otherwise, it covers the land within 50 m of the boundary. The authority may, however, designate an area without a buffer zone. In the buffer zone, consent from the nature protection authority is needed for, among other things, building, landscaping, changes of use or land type and changes to the water regime.

Watch out for

• Natura 2000 (sites of Community importance and bird areas) is a separate European network of protected areas, not a category of specially protected area. A project that may affect it is submitted to the nature protection authority for an opinion.
• A protected area increases the levy for removing land from the agricultural land fund: in the national park zones listed in the Act, zones I to III of a CHKO, a reserve, a monument or a Natura 2000 site the levy is multiplied by an ecological weight of 5 to 20. This does not apply to a family house that a private individual builds for their own housing.
• Whether a plot lies in a protected area or its buffer zone is shown by the zoning plan and by the Central List of Nature Protection kept by AOPK ČR.

Can I build a house in a CHKO?

Often yes, especially in the built-up area and in the municipality's development areas. A CHKO is, however, divided into zones with graded protection, and placing buildings that could reduce or change the landscape character requires consent from the nature protection authority. Landscape character is not assessed, for example, in the built-up area and development areas for which the zoning plan sets protection conditions agreed with that authority.