A reference archive covering protected natural zones, endemic and threatened species, and ecological research programmes across Czech national parks.
Three in-depth records covering the principal national parks of the Czech Republic, each examined from the perspective of natural habitats, resident species and conservation management.
Geology & Flora
Established in 2000, Czech Republic's youngest national park protects a remarkable sandstone landscape shaped over 90 million years. The Pravčická brána, the largest natural arch in Central Europe, stands above river corridors home to black storks and Eurasian otters.
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Alpine Ecology
The oldest and most visited of Czech national parks reaches 1,603 metres at Sněžka. Above the treeline, arctic-alpine plant communities persist on rocky ridges, sharing the landscape with chamois, capercaillie and the endemic Krkonoše globe flower.
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Forest Ecology
The largest Czech national park stretches 680 km² across the Bohemian Forest. Primeval stands of Norway spruce, raised peat bogs with insectivorous sundew, and glacier-formed lakes define a landscape where Eurasian lynx have re-established a stable population.
Read moreFew landscapes in Central Europe carry the same geological drama as České Švýcarsko. The park sits atop a massive Cretaceous sandstone plateau dissected by the Elbe river and its tributaries over tens of millions of years. What remains is a terrain of vertical rock towers, dark gorges and arching bridges of stone — none more striking than Pravčická brána, a natural arch spanning 26 metres at a height of 16 metres.
The park's forests are dominated by Scots pine and beech, with rare floristic communities clinging to shaded canyon walls: hart's tongue fern, mosses and liverworts thrive in the permanent moisture of the gorges. Among the fauna, the Elbe corridor supports breeding black storks, peregrine falcons nesting on cliff faces, and one of the densest otter populations in Bohemia.
In Šumava, the forest is left to complete its natural cycle. Dead trees, standing and fallen, provide structural complexity that a managed forest cannot replicate: cavity nesting sites for owls and woodpeckers, fungi communities breaking down heartwood, and the gradual return of soil carbon. This approach, contested for decades, has produced measurable biodiversity gains in the core zone.
The park's peat bogs — relicts of the last glaciation — hold species found nowhere else in Bohemia. Round-leaved sundew catches insects on moisture-laden cushions of sphagnum. Siberian iris and sedge fields spread across valley floors where beaver-engineered wetlands have expanded riparian habitat by an estimated 40% since the 1990s reintroduction.
