Vyhlášení Chráněné krajinné oblasti Soutok a další jarní novinky v právu životního prostředí

Dear readers,
you are opening the first issue of our magazine in 2025. Before you read our regular sections, let‘s first take a look together at some of the key developments in the field of environmental law, particularly in the areas of nature protection, landscape, biodiversity, air and waste management.
After several years, the system of protected landscape areas in the Czech Republic is expanding. At the beginning of this year, the Czech government approved a government decree declaring the 27th protected landscape area as of July 2025. This time, it is the confluence of the Morava and the Dyje rivers near the borders with Austria and Slovakia, also known as the Moravian Amazone. The area of the confluence of the rivers Dyje and Morava is a unique and exceptionally valuable area for its natural and cultural values on a European scale. It is the largest complex of floodplain forests in Central Europe and there are also wetlands protected by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance and wetlands protected by the Natura 2000 system within the European Union. There are 130 specially protected species of animals and more than 50 species of specially protected plants.
In February this year, the Chamber of Deputies began debating the government’s draft amendment to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act. The amendment to the Nature and Landscape Protection Act brings several major changes. It is generally known to the public as the amendment that aims to enforce the declaration of the fifth national park in the Czech Republic, the Křivoklát region. However, the amendment also includes a number of other innovations. One of the most important ones is the effort to provide stricter protection for trees and tree plantations growing outside the forest. The amendment also introduces protection for pollinators, particularly in relation to the appropriate maintenance of public green spaces and agricultural areas. The protection of pollinator habitats will thus be a normal part of landscape and vegetation management. The protection of pollinators is a requirement introduced into Czech law for the first time by the EU Nature Restoration Regulation of 2024. The amendment brings a fundamental change to the existing special species protection for endangered species of animals and plants. The aim of the amendment is to ensure more effective protection of species, which will primarily focus on the protection of their natural habitat. However, the amendment to the Act is causing dissenting opinions among the expert community or among municipalities.
The Government of the Czech Republic approved the Action Plan for Combating Illegal Trade in Endangered Species of Animals and Plants until 2028, which is the implementation of the Czech Republic‘s obligations under the Washington Convention CITES. The Czech Republic is one of the countries in the European Union with the highest volume of legal trade in live animals and plants, but we are also significantly affected by illegal trade.
It should also be noted that an amendment to the Air Protection Act has been approved and published in the Collection of Acts and International Treaties under No. 42/2025 Coll., amending Act No. 201/2012 Coll., on Air Protection, as amended, and other related acts. The law brings, among other things, an expansion of the number of companies that will continuously monitor emissions of harmful substances, clear rules for one-off measurements of emissions, as well as rules for companies to reduce dust during construction and demolition. The amendment also modifies existing instruments, such as low emission zones and smog management. These last two amendments should strengthen the competences of municipalities and cities in dealing with them in practice. Act No. 42/2025 also clarifies the relationship between the Waste Act and the Air Protection Act as regards the incineration of biodegradable waste on land.
In the spring, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling of 12 March 2025 No. Pl. US 21/21 of 12 March 2025 on a proposal to repeal Section 155(4) and (5) of Act No. 541/2020 Coll., on Waste (published under No. 104/2025 Coll.). In this ruling, the Constitutional Court addresses the constitutionality of the transitional provisions of Act No. 541/2020 Coll, on waste, by which the Act retroactively, as of 1 January 2021, deprived the beneficiaries (municipalities and the State Environmental Fund) of the right to a portion of the fee that waste generators paid for landfilling waste under the older legislation in force before 1 January 2021 and which was paid to the beneficiaries by the landfill operator.
So much of the selected news from our field as I observed it during the spring of this year. And now I wish you, our readers, an interesting reading in our sections of this year’s first issue of our magazine.