Chapter 3
On the Way: The Environmental Movement in Central Europe

3.2 The Czech Republic

• The Czech Union for Nature Protection (Cesky Svaz Ochrancu Prirodny ) - CSOP which developed its activities under governmental supervision since 1979, and
• the Brontosaurus movement, which was a part of the Socialist Youth Organization, since 1974.

Both groups were established by and under the communist authorities of the Czechoslovakian Federation. In the Czech Republic the 'green' movement was one of the important forces in the process of political changes of 1989. As Stroufova^[1] said: 'People from the environmental movement understood that when they want to improve the environmental situation, it was necessary to change the political system.'

Both official groups had branches which were balancing on the edge of legal and illegal during the 'Velvet Revolution'. After the changes many skilled and competent people left the 'green' movement. [REC 5, 1994, p. 88] The political active branches were mainly located in Brno and Prague. Both the CSOP and Brontosaurus were nature conservation organizations . While Brontosaurus focused on organizing youth working camps in the nature, CSOP was dealing with protected areas and the publishing of environmental bulletins, for example 'Nika' (since 1980) and Veronica (since 1986). [Fisher et al., 1992, p. 41]

Rapidly after the changes the original public popularity of environmental issues faded away. The current lack of public concern is directly associated with the lack of interest shown by the new government. [REC 5, 1994, p. 88] Although environment is not a hot issue anymore, we can conclude that the Czech environmental movement has developed fast over the past five years. [Milieukontakt, 1994, p. 14] The current Czech environmental movement is much broader than only CSOP and Brontosaurus. Since January 1990 over 300 independent NGOs have been formed on addressing environmental problems, and protecting the environment. [REC 5, 1994, p. 89] The differentiation and specialization of environmental NGOs divides them in three fields. These are:

1. Environmental education, particularly of youth;
2. Increasing public awareness by collection and dissemination of information on environmental issues;
3. Campaigning, which means undertaking mainly socio-political activities like lobbying and protest actions.

The biggest environmental NGOs in the Czech Republic at the moment are the CSOP, Deti Zeme, Hnuti Duha and the Federation of Environmental Education Centers. CSOP branches are spread out all over the country, still mainly dealing with nature conservation activities and collection and dissemination of environmental information. Both Hnuti Duha and Deti Zeme can be seen as campaigning groups, and as the name says the last mentioned organization is the umbrella of environmental education centers throughout the Czech Republic.

A specialty in the Czech environmental movement is the existence of 'Green Circle'. This common body for about 40 environmental NGOs is based in Prague and was already established before the political changes of 1990. It is an initiative which develops in a positive way by coordinating functions, being the national source of information and dealing with a successful lobbying project in cooperation with Hnuti Duha and Milieukontakt Oost-Europa. [Milieukontakt, 1994, p. 15; REC 5, 1994, p. 90]

According to Marek^[2] the following phenomena for the future can be expected [REC 5, 1994, p. 91]:

• A considerably more extensive involvement of non-organized public in addressing environmental problems and environmental decision making;
• Additional reduction in the number of influential NGOs; several really leading organizations and several dozens of important organizations may survive;
• Additional specialization in the scope of activities of the individual NGOs;
• More active involvement of NGOs in policy and decision making through elected bodies at all levels; NGOs will be granted appropriate rights in relation to the government and governmental bodies;
• To a larger extent, people will group into ad hoc movements to address particular local and individual problems.