The diploma thesis deals with a legal regulation of National Parks in the Czech Republic. The National parks are declared within territorial nature conservation in places with unaffected ecosystems or ecosystems little influenced by people. The thesis is composed of ten chapters dealing with declaring of National Parks, protective conditions, visitor rules, management plans, zoning systems and buffer zones. The separate parts focus on the possibility of establishing fees in National Park areas and reaching a compromise between nature conservation and tourism. The closing part looks at the imperfections of institutions of National Parks. The aim of the thesis is to analyze an effective legal regulation and then to propose its modification in order to protect nature more efficiently in the area of National Parks.

1 Abstract The thesis whose subject is Comparation of legislation of National Parks in the Czech Republic and the Republic of South Africa deals In detail with the legislation of national parks, especially in comparison of the Czech legal system and the legal system of South Africa, but also with the international law and European Union law. The aim is mainly to analyze in detail the individual instruments and institutions that govern the environmental law in relation to national parks and to acquaint the readers with scope of nature conversation in Europe and Africa. The thesis also serves and explains the basic terms related to the territorial regulation of national parks and protected areas (prior to national parks) on both continents. National parks are the most important type of protected area; they are declare by the state and in the scope of nature conversation national parks are the most crucial mean of conversation. The regulation of national parks is embodied in the laws of individual states; in the Czech Republic it is the Act on the protection of nature and landscape of 1992 while in South Africa it is the Protected Areas Act of 2003. In general, however, the national legislation is very influenced by international treaties and by the international organizations whose influence is still growing....

D.Phil. / What underlies species distribution and species coexistence has long been of key interest in community ecology. Several methods and theories have been used to address this question. However, it still remains a controversial debate. The recent development of plant DNA barcodes with possibility of merging phylogeny with ecology brings high expectation in uncovering the processes underlying community assemblages. Previous works that used molecular approach in community ecology focused mainly on rainforests. Using a phylogenetic approach, this study brings novel understandings about savanna ecology, especially regarding how megaherbivores impact plant community composition. The Kruger National Park (KNP) is one of the world’s largest reserves, but less studied from a phylogenetic perspective. A DNA database of 445 DNA sequences (plant DNA barcodes, rbcLa + matK) was generated for the woody plants of the KNP. This database proves reliable in reconstructing the phylogeny of Angiosperms of the park. Based on this phylogeny, the present study characterised plant community composition, and investigated how megaherbivores influence this composition. Results indicate that plant communities in the KNP are not neutral, i.e. they are more clustered than expected under various null models. This suggests that ecological forces, most likely habitat filtering may be playing key role in dictating community structure in the KNP. The KNP is well-known for its richness in megaherbivores. The contribution of these animals to the current shape of plant community structures was therefore further investigated. Where megaherbivores have been excluded, plant diversity decreases, but shifts in plant community structure are contingent upon the initial community composition, suggesting that herbivory might be important filter that drives the clustering pattern observed.

M.Sc. / Boreholes in the Kruger National Park (KNP) was at first developed to increase the number of animals that were at low densities because of poaching, diseases, fencing and low permanent water availability. This development of artificial waterholes without managerial measures or knowledge of possible consequence led to negative impacts on the environment. These included that the higher concentration of herbivores around artificial waterholes led to a change in vegetation; secondary vegetation growth did not support the feeding habits of water dependent species; the infiltration rate of water in the soil surrounding waterholes changed and animal distribution patterns also changed, in turn changing the predatory base. Due to the above the KNP developed a new water policy. The policy states that all artificial waterholes that are open should be part of natural ecosystem principles. This led to the closure of many artificial waterholes that did not conform to the requirements of the new water policy. This study aimed to determine the ecological implications of artificial waterholes and whether tourism will be affected by the closure of these artificial waterholes. The following two hypothesis were thus tested in this project: i) Artificial waterholes have ecological implications on the environment. ii) The closure of artificial waterholes will have a negative response from tourists and thus affect tourism to the KNP. The results from this project indicated that both these hypothesises can be accepted as the available literature clearly showed that artificial waterholes do have a negative impact on the environment and that the majority of the tourist questioned asked for the waterholes to be opened again. The latter reaction was mainly due to the tourist‟s concern that the animals will suffer and die without water. Furthermore the visitors are concerned they won‟t see animals anymore. This result can partly be due to the low awareness of the visitors on the subject. No effort was made to communicate these decisions, and the reasons it‟s based on, to the public. Although a certain number of artificial waterholes were closed according to the new KNP policy, it is still important to keep a number open due to fact that KNP is not a natural system. It is suggested however that the closure of the artificial waterholes take place differently, following a principle of rotational opening and closing of patches of waterholes to allow recovery of vegetation and facilitate migration between waterholes.

M.Comm. / Tourism development has the potential to have significant impacts on the environment. To ensure that tourism is sustainable into the future there needs to be a balance between tourism development and environmental concerns. The move towards sustainable tourism development requires that there be a closer co-operation among four very different stakeholders. These stakeholders include the tourism business, the environment, the host population, and the tourist. The main purpose of this research was to identify, at the Kruger National Park, the levels of awareness and understanding of the concept of sustainable tourism development amongst the four stakeholders. Also are identified are their viewpoints on how to achieve sustainable tourism development, their efforts to ensure it, and the role that marketing can play to ensure sustainable tourism development. This study, being exploratory in nature, made use of in-depth interviews (a qualitative technique) to gather the needed primary data. In-depth interviews were conducted at the Kruger National Park with representatives from the various stakeholder groups. Observation of physical aspects and people behaviours were used to supplement the in-depth interviews. Overall, it was found that most groups are aware of the need to balance environmental concerns with tourism development. Tourists however, are less aware of concepts such as sustainable tourism development than the other stakeholders It is was found that in some cases there is a lack of communication between some of the various stakeholders on various issues. The respondents in this case thought that the other stakeholders might disagree with them on certain issues when in fact their ideas were similar. Strong emphasis is being placed on developing relationships with the local communities and involving them in the decisions that affect them. It is realised that these local communities can have a major impact on the larger ecosystem around the park and could eventually destroy tourism if they are ignored. Local communities need to benefit from the existence of the park. Overall, the respondents do not have a clear understanding of what marketing entails or the contribution it can make to ensuring sustainable tourism development. Marketing is viewed by most as simply selling bed-nights. The marketing function at the Kruger National Park is ineffective and not given the support or attention it requires to operate effectively. For marketing to play a significant role at the park serious attention needs to be given to redesigning the entire marketing department. It is absolutely essential that tourism be developed in an environmentally sustainable manner to ensure the industry's future existence. Marketing of the park needs to be done in a manner that will not lead to the environment being exploited. Marketing, apart from simply selling the park, can play an important role in developing a conservation ethic amongst tourists and potential tourists. This educational role extends to the youth of the country who are the future tourists, tourism developers and conservationists.

Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) - MSc (Biodiv and Cons Biol) / Knowledge of global reptile ecology is limited and there remains much to understand in terms of detailed reptile species information, including that of their distributions. In South Africa, despite being one of SANParks best-studied reserves, surprisingly little is known about the distributions and spatial ecology of reptiles within Kruger National Park (KNP). Management within KNP follows a strategic adaptive management strategy which monitors the statuses of animals using species or group specific indicators. Indicators are given predetermined upper and lower ranges of acceptable fluctuation before actions are taken. These ranges are referred to as thresholds of potential concern (TPCs), and for reptiles these are based on changes to their distributions across the landscape of KNP. An apparent lack of high-quality reptile distribution data inhibits the effective monitoring of the statuses of these animals within KNP, which in turn limits management and conservation options. In this study, I use several methods to quantify available reptile occurrence data which formed the foundations for predicting the distributions of these species across KNP by means of species distribution modelling, with a view to gaining novel insight into reptile assemblage structure across the landscape of KNP.

Legal regulation of nature protection in national parks Abstract The purpose of the thesis is to provide an overview of legal instruments used to protect nature in national parks after the amendment of the Act No. 114/1992 Coll., On Nature and Landscape Protection ("NLP") and evaluate their functionality. Although Act No. 123/2017 Coll., which amended the NPL, has been in effect since June 1, 2017, changes are being reflected in practice gradually. The thesis is elaborated by a descriptive method connected with the analysis of effective legislation and it is formally divided into six chapters. The first chapter deals with sources of legal regulation, the second one deals with the term of national park itself, including a short historical excursion and the international concept of IUCN. This chapter also includes the issue of the protection zone and the process of proclaiming national parks. The third chapter is devoted to the new concept of management zoning and also contains the current information on the zoning discussion in individual national parks. The fourth chapter contains an overview of the tools that lead to the limitation of various activities in the territory of the national park, whether they are basic or closer protective conditions, restrictions and prohibition of activities according to § 66...

Woody vegetation patches play an important role in the savanna ecosystem. They provide habitat for animal species and are important for some ecological processes such as. However, the coexistence of trees and grass depend on several factors such as fire, elephant, rainfall and soil type. In Kruger National Park, factors that affect the survival of woody vegetation patches are elephants and fire. The loss of woody vegetation patches leads to fragmentation of the landscape. The main aim of this study was to determine the relative difference in the composition, complexity and configuration of woody vegetation patches in and out of the enclosures, and to evaluate the changes in number and size, shape and connectivity of woody vegetation patches between basalt and granite soils over a period of time. There was no linear relationship between composition and complexity and mean nearest neighbour with year, whilst edge density appeared to have a linear relationship with year. Based on edge density results, the results suggested that there was increase in landscape fragmentation in Kruger National Park. The increase in woody patch fragmentation can be attributed to the increase in elephant population, as well as fire frequency and intensity. There was no difference in the composition, complexity and configuration between the inside of the enclosure and the outside. The results show that there is difference between the basalt (Makhohlola) and granite (Nwashitshumbe) region. The results indicated that Makhohlola seems to be highly fragmented than the Nwashitshumbe. The basalt region is situated on rich soils and receives more rainfall than the granite region; hence thus plant growth is greater than that on granite region. High plant growth is associated with high fire frequency and intensity, which result high influence on woody vegetation. The basalt region is dominated with palatable vegetation, as result; the basalt region is associated with large number of herbivores. Due, to high number of herbivores, and high frequency and intensity, the basalt region may be highly fragmented. The change in woody vegetation patches over time, on both basalt and granite region was associated with the interaction between the increase in elephant density, and fire frequency and (or) intensity.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, 1993.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science. Johannesburg, August 2016. / Resource selection by herbivores is driven by processes operating across a multitude of spatial scales and is influenced by a variety of biotic and abiotic environmental conditions and resources across the landscape. Spatial scales levels are crucial in habitat selection studies because they affect the interpretation of results and what may appear important at one level may not be relevant at another. Decisions made by animals at these levels can influence animal movements and hence the spatial distribution of populations. In this way, the use of resources across different scales by individual and groups of animals can be linked to population performance as a whole. Within home ranges, habitat use is mostly influenced by variation of food resources and water availability together with competition and predation risk. The study aimed to determine sable home range extent and habitat use and to test how predation, competition and other environmental factors influenced the selection of areas within these home ranges, in the thriving sable population of the Gorongosa National Park (GNP), Mozambique. Two adult females, one per herd, were fitted with GPS collar providing 5 hours interval GPS coordinates over a year, which were used to determine the annual and seasonal home ranges extents. Home ranges were then overlaid with vegetation map to analyse habitat use. Contrary to expectation, sable home ranges in this study were larger than those found in previous studies. The herds did not limit their habitat use to woodlands, using also open grasslands, drainage lines and bottomlands that retained green grasses during the dry season. Both herds expanded their ranges during the dry season, searching for those areas that still retained green grasses and searching for remaining water sources. For the resources selection within home ranges, I used the same GPS collar coordinates to fit seasonal logistic regression models with biotic factors (predation risk and competition) and with environmental variables (distance from water, distance from roads, elevation, slope, NDVI, vegetation types and landscape). Results show that sable were less prevalent in areas with high predation risk, but herds differed in prevalence with competitors, one herd favouring areas with high reedbuck concentrations and the other favouring low concentrations. Effects of environmental variables were different between seasons and between herds, being distance from water, distance from roads, greenness and elevation the most influential environmental. Both herds, however, avoided low elevation areas during the wet season, probably in order to avoid areas flooded during this period. As conclusion, predation risk and competition influenced selection within home ranges by sable in the GNP, despite low densities of potential competitors and lions. Nevertheless, this influence seems to not be enough yet to limit the success of the population. The herds also showed evidences of being affected by dry season, as demonstrated by the home ranges expansions during this period. With increase of herbivores population other that sable, and consequently increase competition and decrease of availability of resources, this could lead to reduction of growths percentages of the sable population in the park in the future. / MT2018