Environmental conservation in military training areas—source of spatial conflicts?

Abstract

Abstract. The aim of the paper is to provide the overview of the spatial development confl icts linked with the existence of Military training areas (MTA) in the regional system. Only several places in the Central European space can be called new wilderness. Above all these are the MTA. The environmental history of these spaces went through a deep reversion. Changes in their cultural, political as well as social-economic profi le can be compared with the specifi c belt of the former Iron Curtain zones only. Last two decades were essential for the physical existence of the MTAs. Because of the weak local political power, social capital and wide public support, are most of the decommitted MTAs in a deep conceptual crisis. The presented study fi nds solutions based on a long lasting research.

Problems of Transforming Military Training Areas in a Post-Communist Space: Local Community Perceptions and Policy Implications

“…Military training areas (hereina er MTA) represent a specifi c type of peripheries with signifi cant potential, usable for future sustainable development (Kustrová, 2013;Seidl and Chromý, 2010a;Zug, 2015). While the integration of spatially or socio-economically marginalized areas into the regional system in the context of post-communist transformation has been an important subject of social science research in general, the MTA have been so far neglected -partly due to social and political conditions, including the lack of information or a limited ability to obtain information about the areas, and partly due to a general irrelevance of the problem requiring an immediate solution (Seidl and Chromý, 2010b).…”