Riparian forests at the confluence of the Morava and Dyje rivers in south Moravia will remain a protected landscape area (CHKO), as the Constitutional Court today rejected a motion by 35 ANO MPs to repeal the government decree that created it earlier this year. The declaration of the so-called Soutok (‘Confluence’) protected landscape area was an initiative of the outgoing government of Petr Fiala (ODS).
ANO, the dominant force in the incoming government, has long been critical of the Soutok CHKO, and the candidate to become the new environment minister, Motorists leader Petr Macinka, also opposes it.
“The process of approving and discussing the contested regulation did not show any signs of arbitrariness,” the Constitutional Court stated in the ruling of judge rapporteur Daniela Zemanova. There were no dissenting opinions.
According to the ANO MPs, the Environment Ministry failed to address many of the comments from the consultation over the creation of the protected landscape area, and ignored the views of locals. Moreover, ANO considered its establishment to be unnecessary, as the area is already protected as a European site of importance in the Natura 2000 system.
The Environment Ministry, for its part, stressed that the CHKO designation would ensure better protection of natural and cultural resources without affecting the economic use of the area.
The “Moravian Amazon” situated at the confluence of the Morava and the Dyje is the largest preserved floodplain forest complex in Central Europe. The protected landscape area, which covers an area of 125 square kilometres, lies on the borders with Austria and Slovakia around Breclav and Lanzhot in southern Moravia. The forests, meadows, oxbow lakes, pools and wetlands are home to endangered species of plants and animals, such as the eastern imperial eagle.
Many natural scientists and environmentalists supported the creation of the Soutok protected area, but some people from the area were opposed from the beginning. A number of landowners, companies and local municipalities have filed dozens of lawsuits that have been continuously dismissed by the Prague Municipal Court. Its decisions have been repeatedly confirmed by the Supreme Administrative Court, which says the Environment Ministry acted in accordance with the law.
Higher protection of the riparian forests at the confluence of the Morava and the Dyje rivers in the Breclav area began to be discussed as early as the beginning of the 1970s. The policy statement of the government of Petr Fiala (ODS) from January 2022 originally included the intention to declare a national park in the locality, but in the end, the cabinet decided in January to establish only a protected landscape area there, from 1 July.
