Bohemia is a basin ringed by mountains, and the Elbe drains it north through a sandstone country of pillars and gorges so strange it was named Bohemian Switzerland by eighteenth-century painters who had run out of comparisons. The mountains on the German border, the Ore Mountains and the Giant Mountains, were once so badly damaged by acid rain from lignite power stations that the forests died standing across whole slopes.
That devastation is instructive, because it has substantially reversed. Emissions controls after 1989 cut the sulphur, and the forests have been slowly, imperfectly recovering ever since, an unusually clear demonstration that regulation works and that ecosystems can come back if the pressure is genuinely removed. The region still burns lignite, and the open-cast mines have swallowed villages whole.
The organizations here restore the mountain forests and the peat above them, defend the sandstone landscapes and the Elbe against canalisation for shipping, and push a coal region through an energy transition that will determine whether the recovery holds.
Environmental Organizations in This Bioregion
15 organizations working across this landscape.
CEE Bankwatch Network
CEE Bankwatch Network is a 1% for the Planet nature nonprofit partner associated with climate adaptation. Based in Prague, Czechia, it is included in the IdealLocati...
Friends of the Earth - Czech Republic
Hnutí Duha is one of the oldest and most active environmental movements in the Czech Republic.
Institute of Circular Economy
To accelerate the transition towards circular economy by educating, sharing and creating pioneering cases of practice.
Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO)
LINGO works on ending the fossil fuel age by leaving fossils in the ground and transitioning to 100% clean energy.
Limity jsme my
Limity jsme my is a Czech climate justice movement working to address the root causes of the climate crisis by striving to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
PEOPLE IN NEED SLOVAKIA
PEOPLE IN NEED SLOVAKIA is a 1% for the Planet nature nonprofit partner associated with climate adaptation. Based in Bratislava, Slovakia, it is included in the Idea...
Sázíme stromy z.ú
We want people to know what it takes to plant a tree or shrub so that they could plant it by themselves and thus spread our mission to support greenery. Our missio...
Wilderness International
We protect the last wilderness areas of this planet and its biodiversity, wildlife, ecosystems & carbon sinks as well as promoting environmental education.
Youth and Environment Europe
Youth and Environment Europe (YEE) is the largest independent European network of environmental youth organizations. YEE unites 52 member organisations coming f...
Ziva voda
Our association has name in English Living Water. We are concentrating on water protection and water environment. Nature conservation with focus on water restoratio...