There is an increased risk of spontaneous fall of branches and trees throughout the National Park, where the laws of nature govern the formation and termination of trees. Enter the forest at your own risk!
Zoning is a nature conservation tool used to manage large areas of special protection. It divides the entire national park territory into areas of comparable natural value according to the objectives of their protection and management. The current delimitation of nature protection zones is carried out by the Decree of the Ministry of the Environment No. 217/2015 Sb., on the delimitation of nature protection zones of the Krkonoše National Park.
The new management zoning, also called care zoning, is directly subordinated to the objectives of the individual zones. These are probably best defined by their names. The aim of the nature zone, which is defined in areas where natural ecosystems predominate, is to leave these ecosystems to their natural development without interference. The new nature zone then includes ecosystems that have been partially altered by man, with the aim of gradually helping nature to achieve a state similar to that of the natural zone. In the future, once an appropriate status has been achieved, parts of this zone can then be converted into a natural zone. The zone of concentrated nature conservation has two objectives. This includes highly man-made ecosystems - especially unstable spruce stands planted by man in place of the original beech forests, which will need to be converted to mixed and broadleaved forests and thus restored to their natural state. However, this zone also includes the wildflower meadows of the Krkonoše Mountains, which were historically created in place of deforested enclaves and which depend on permanent care, without which many of the plant and animal species associated with them would disappear. The aim of this zone is to preserve or improve these conservation objects, so typical activities here will include cutting, mowing and grazing. This zone will also include forests where the aim is to promote biodiversity. Finally, the last cultural landscape zone is delimited in the territory of the Krkonoše villages or in their vicinity, it is intended for sustainable development and its aim is not to deteriorate the achieved environmental quality. This zone is relatively small in the Krkonoše region, as most of the villages have not been part of the national park since 1991, but are located in the protection zone.
The natural zone has 7,328.5 ha (20.2 % of the KRNAP area), the zone close to nature has 8,097.3 ha (22.3 % of the KRNAP area), the zone of concentrated care has 20,730.3 ha (57.0 % of the KRNAP area) and the zone of cultural landscape has 196.1 ha (0.5 % of the KRNAP area).
The new zoning will not affect the regular visitor when hiking in the Krkonoše Mountains. The new zoning, or management zoning, is directed more towards the administrator of the area, i.e. the Park Management, and determines how to care for the area.