Can Natura 2000 mapping be used to zone the Šumava National Park?

The future of the Šumava National Park is linked to discussions on its zoning, which has undergone significant changes since the establishment of the Park. The present zonation was strongly criticized by experts, representatives of NGOs and international organizations. Over the last couple of years, politicians became more vocal in callings for a new law that would fix the rules governing the use of the Šumava NP and the central question in this is zonation. A new proposal on the zonation was prepared by the scientific community, but in order to maximize the probability of its acceptance, the area of the core zone proposed was just barely sufficient to include the most valuable parts of the most important habitats and some of the habitats of the most important species. Thus, any further reduction in the area of the core zone is likely to pose a serious threat to the survival of important species and habitats occurring in the Šumava NP. Here we present a politically unbiased estimate of the optimum size of the core zone based on Natura 2000 habitats and species mapping.