Bilateral Biosphere Reserve Karkonosze/Krkonoše

The Bilateral Biosphere Reserve Karkonosze/Krkonoše was established in 1993 by resolution of MaB Interntational Co-ordinating Council in Paris, acting within UNESCO, as a result of a common Polish-Czech initiative. It covers the area equivalent to the range of the National Parks on both sides of the Polish-Czech border. In total, the area size is 60,500 ha, this including 55,000 ha on the Czech and further 5,500 ha on the Polish side. The transition zone has been established on the Polish side.
The Biosphere Reserves are not a category of environment protection, even though they are often interpreted as such. Their role is not limited to conservation of natural resources within a certain area, therefore it also includes looking for environment-friendly methods of utilizing these resources for the benefit of the local population. There is no special institutional framework to manage them. The concept of Biosphere Reserves functioning and the attainment of assumed objectives is based on the goodwill of all stakeholders and their partners in co-operation.
There were many reasons for establishing Bilateral Biosphere Reserve Karkonoze/Krkonoše: conservation of natural ecosystems that are unique in Europe and the World, reconstruction of transformed or destroyed environment components and elaboration of principles for natural resource utilization for economic development of the local population that would be consistent with the concept of sustainable development. The specific goals of Bilateral Biosphere Reserve Karkonosze/Krkonoše are:
- protection of biodiversity on various ecosystem levels;
- conservation of natural ecosystems, unique on European and global scale;
- ecological education of the society;
- promoting and sharing the knowledge on sustainable management of natural resources;
- reactivation and development of traditional forms of natural resources utilization;
- development of functional protected areas surrounding the Biosphere Reserve to implement the concept of sustainable development.
The extraordinary natural, scientific, educational and economic values of the Karkonosze enforce all our efforts towards designing adequat methods to use these values and leave them untouched for future generations.