ZLV Online

Abstract

Nowadays, the possibility of public access to forests, recognized as the recreational forest function, is considered to be one of the cultural ecosystem services. Legally regulated right to roam and, more specifically, legally regulated public access to forests is, among others, the necessary condition of factual use of recreation forest potential. This paper deals with the assessment of legal conditions of public access to forests in the context of freedom to roam. Based on the theoretical concepts of right to roam and property rights, the paper analyses and compares the substantial forest and nature protection legislation valid in the area of Slovakia and Czechia at the beginning of 1990s with the present situation. Using the Czech and Slovak nature protection acts and forest acts, both the material as well as personal scope of public access to forests were analysed. Results show that while the freedom to roam was not incorporated in the respective legislation before 1990, nowadays there are serious modifications in this legal institute in both countries. Considering public access to forests, its legal regulation before 1990 was exactly the same in Slovakia and Czechia, while the present situation is also significantly different.