The Czech Ministry of Environment is pushing to ban the use of high-quality agricultural land for the construction of huge logistics and shopping centers or even for solar power plants. Czech Television ran a story in last night’s news that said an important reason for the ban is the country’s struggles both with droughts and with flooding. The new regulations would impact the construction of anything more than 1 hectare on 1st and 2nd category agricultural land, for which approval has to be made at the regional level.
The report included a telephone interview with an unnamed member of the leadership of the city of Cheb which is now cracking down on industrial projects. “We’re working on changes to the master plan so that we can contribute at least a little to environmental protection,” he said. The report also quotes the spokesman of the Czech Agricultural Fund Vladimir Picha: “We welcome the changes to the law because we’re losing 15 hectares of agricultural land every day,” he said. Here’s the link to the report.
