A multi-level ecological network in the Czech Republic: Implementating the territorial system of ecological stability

Abstract

In the late 1970s, a concept of an ecological network in former Czechoslovakia, called the Territorial System of Ecological Stability (TSES) was formulated as a response to large-scale natural and semi-natural habitat fragmentation and loss. In the Czech Republic, the TSES concept is a part of the environmental legislation, namely of the act on the conservation of nature and the landscape. The whole system is the network of ecologically significant segments of landscape, efficiently distributed on the basis of functional and spatial criteria, covering biotic, hydrological, soil and relief conditions. It consists of biocentres, corridors and buffer zones. The TSES is established at three hierarchical levels: Local, regional and supra-regional (=national). In the article, a methodology for establishing the supra-regional TSES is presented in more detail.