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The accession of the Czech Republic in the European Union has brought a necessity to adopt a range of new legal regulations and to apply them in our conditions. Their application however connects with a highly demanding and complex process of implementation of the individual acts of law, administrative and time requirements. One of laws that had to be adopted is the Act No. 76/2002 Coll. on integrated prevention and pollution control, on the integrated pollution register and on amendment to some Acts (hereinafter the IPPC Act). The Act imposes an obligation for all operators of various industrial and processing plants working at certain production or processing capacities have to obtain a so called integrated license without which their activities will not be permitted to continue in the future. At the beginning of the integrated licensing procedure, each subject concerned by the Act is obliged to file an application for the integrated license at a relevant regional authority. There is an analysis of the present time of the IPPC problems in Czech food industry. At the present time, the procedure of licensing and applications for the integrated license are at various stages of the process in individual enterprises.

The paper describes the policy, legislative and organisational context and structure of financing the forestry from public funds in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia in the 90's. The first half of the nineties was the period of the most significant changes, whereas more stable and systematic financing of forestry was generally started in the second half of the nineties. The supported activities reflected main problems and challenges facing the forestry in individual countries. In the Czech Republic the substantial support was designed for protective measures and restitution of damaged stands. In Poland, the increase of forest area and restitution of forest stands damaged by air-pollution were the priority. Slovenian budget supported mainly the improvement of road infrastructure, forest management planning, as well as sustainable utilisation of forests through marking of trees for cutting. Estonian forestry received the relatively lowest subsidies allocated mainly to the preparation of management plans and extension services. Subsidies were the most important instruments of support. In Poland, however, tax exemptions and concessions were significantly higher than the value of financial means allocated from the public funds.

The greatest advance in ecosystem research was made in the last century. The development and acceptance of forest ecology by foresters occurred because it provided a means for recognizing, understanding, classifying and mapping the natural variation of forests. Forest ecology involved studies at the individual, population, community, and ecosystem levels but such studies always needed to involve the ecosystem concept. Today, the new concept of "ecosystem and landscape forestry" integrating ecological and socio-economic research has been developed on the basis of EU COST Action E-25 European Network for a Long-term Forest Ecosystem and Landscape Research Programme. An analysis has been carried out of the present situation in forest research in the Czech Republic. The need for forest ecosystem and landscape research is obvious.

The paper is briefly outlining the expected changes in the economic and financial pre-conditions for Slovak farming during the period after the country's accession to the EU. The starting point of authors reasoning is the current piece of knowledge, saying that the economic performance of individual farms is widely differentiated and the ability of individual farms to meet the future challenges and to use the opportunities is very unevenly distributed among them. Also the competitiveness if a particular agricultural commodity varies. Despite of expectations concerning the price development after accession, not all commodities will be competitive on the single market. The economic situation of farms will considerably benefit from direct payments. Nevertheless, the fact that the Slovak government opted for the Single Area payment Scheme will have some adverse effects on possible gains from payments in productive regions and in farms with high output performance. In order to mitigate these redistribution effects the author is proposing to implement a different scheme of allocation of national top-up is to direct payments. In the final part of his paper the author gives a comprehensive review on payments aimed to promote rural development and payments from the Guidance section of the EAGGF targeted at enhancement of farm re-structuring.

This article deals with the issue of Slovakia's competitiveness vis-ŕ-vis the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Austria and France in terms of basic variable costs invested into seeds (planting stocks), fertilisers and chemical protective in the period from 2001 to 2003. In addition to these costs, the article also compares total revenues, profit, effect of inputs into production and the variable costs profit margin. This comparative analysis uses data published for 2002. While the data for years 2001 and 2003 for Slovakia and the Czech Republic are actual, those for other countries have been simulated. The basic variable costs per tonne of the produced crop (average figure for 2001 and 2003) in Slovakia are lower, i.e. it is competitive in the production of cereals, sunflower and sugar beet vis-ŕ-vis the observed EU-15 countries, barley, sunflower and sugar beet vis-ŕ-vis the Czech Republic, wheat and barley vis-ŕ-vis Poland and barley vis-ŕ-vis Hungary.

In any activity, thus at work as well, there is an influence of the environment on a human being. This environment, to which every worker has his own individual relationship, becomes a part and background of the worker's life. The realization of these interactions and relationships markedly affects achieved working results. The ecologically harmless technologies will not be used in forestry considerately towards the environment if forestry workers do not change their negative attitudes to their environment. In this project we tried to map out environmental knowledge of forestry workers.

The paper provides some of the interim results of the Fifth Framework PRISMA project dealing with the of impact ICT on government and citizen services in Europe. The analysis and the concept description of long-term strategies for eGovernment and a long-term vision over 10 years for eGovernment are described. Activities performed by the government are analysed from the demand ("front office") and supply ("back office") point of view. Recommendations for long-term strategic decisions are based on three scenarios of the future European development till 2010: (1) "Prosperous and just Europe", (2) "Turbulent world", (3) "Recession and reorientation".

Transformation of Czech agriculture led to significant changes, which were mirrored in the crystallisation of rather large territorial differences. Clear regional disproportions are a fundamental problem for the state as a whole, therefore, it is important to provide aid for the regions that lag behind in economic development by introducing sensible regional policies. This situation is still more complicated in agriculture, as this transformation to free market economy results in the unequal regional development in relation to natural environment, regional traditions and the level of rural settlement in addition to the phenomena such as price liberalisation and the flow of goods, capital and population, among other. At the moment, the principal aims of regional agricultural policies are the preservation of regional productivity, the settlement of problematic and endangered regions and the support of a balanced regional development. The primary goal of this article is to indicate some of the largest regional differentiations in the agriculture of the Czech Republic. The purpose is to give an increased consideration to the restructuring of agricultural production, the environment and the social and general economic milieu in which it is located

The paper tackles the issue of regional and social development. From a sociological point of view, it focuses on the phenomenon of complementary currency systems. The analysis shows that money, as a social institution, has got certain features, which have an impact on economic behavior of people. Establishing a currency on the local level, which would circulate as a complement of the national currency, brings certain social benefits to local society. Nowadays, there are many complementary currency systems all over the world, including Europe. The paper attempts to answer the question, how they can contribute to the local development.

This paper deals with the recent sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo Roxb.) decline in the plain land (locally called as terai) of Nepal. This study has made an attempt to find the possible causal factor of this decline. The study has made some initiative in this aspect and has made a comparative study of 30 different sissoo forest (both natural and plantation) stands. The symptoms of the sissoo decline were found to be varied. But in most of cases, the top dying of crown was found to be the most prevalent. The top dying starts from the top of the tree and progressively proceeds downwards to the stem. The leaves become yellow. Until now, it has been assumed that only the plantation forests have been affected but this study observed the sissoo decline also in natural forest sites. We analysed various components of physical soil characteristics and we did not find any correlation between the physical soil factors and the sissoo decline. We concluded from this study that the soil is not the sole responsible factor involved in the sissoo decline Furthermore, this paper discusses various aspects of the sissoo decline and possible causal factors concerned. Finally, future management strategies regarding the sissoo management are suggested.

The effect of two commercially produced biopreparations on the originators of chestnut ink disease in Slovakia - soil fungi Phytophthora cambivora and Phytophthora cinnamomi was tested in laboratory conditions. Investigations of interrelations between Trichoderma harzianum (Pythium oligandrum) and isolates of Phytophthora sp. obtained from infected tissues of Castanea sativa Mill. proved more important inhibitive effects for Pythium oligandrum (biopreparation Polyversum); efficiency 25.3% (Ph. cambivora) and 26.2% (Ph. cinnamomi). Biopreparation Supresivit (Trichoderma harzianum) reached the efficiency 9.1% for Ph. cambivora isolates and 9.2% for Ph. cinnamomi isolates. Significant effect of the used bioformulas for inhibition of mycelial growth of both Phytophthora sp. and significant difference in the efficacy of two different bioformulas were confirmed statistically.

Using Moericke's yellow dishes we studied the Hymenoptera (Aculeata) fauna (with the exception of Formicoidea) in spruce (Picea abies) stands of the colder region of Northern Bohemia. We collected 103 species and the most important species in this spectrum were Vespula vulgaris (56.4%), Vespula rufa (4.7%), Dolichovespula norvegica (3.1%), Dolichovespula saxonica (4%), Nysson spinosus (1.8%), Andrena lappona (1.9%), Cleptes semiauratus (5.9%), Halictus sp. (6.7%) and Trypoxylon minus (2.2%). Comparisons made in 1990-1994 and 1995-1999 indicated a recession of species of the genus Halictus, of Andrena nitida (Apidae), Pemphredon lugubris, Trypoxylon clavicerum and T. minus (Sphecidae), and an increased abundance of Cleptes semiauratus (Cleptidae), Nysson spinosus (Sphecidae), Vespula vulgaris and V. rufa (Vespidae). Compared to closed stands, open spruce stands had a greater species diversity and lower number of captured specimens.

This contribution describes eight variants of the distribution of the direct payments and their impact on the farm economies in the years 2004-2006. For this purpose, selective set of 152 farms was divided in accordance with production regions: maize-growing, beet-growing, potato-growing, potato and oats-growing and uplands1. Possible demands for standard direct payments depending on the farm situation in 2002 and demands for payments set by different variants of the simplified system of direct payment distribution were figured to each of observed farms. To be comparable, individual bonuses were converted per 1 hectare of the farmland and to be considered more objectively, the eventual subsidies in terms of HRDP were calculated to the farms. In conclusion, all mentioned variants were compared from the point of view of their impact on the farm economies in different production and climatic regions.

Despite the significant decrease of unemployment in Slovak Republic during the year 2003, the problem of high unemployment is still very relevant. In the previous period, various measures of active labour policy have been applied, and their efficiency was approved or disproved only by their realisation. In order to achieve the highest possible efficiency of the spent financial means, it is desirable that every prepared measure is assessed from different aspects by specialists, independent experts as well as by subjects that are to participate in the particular measure. This contribution represents ex ante evaluation analysis. Its objective is to assess the newly proposed measure in the field of active labour policy. The proposal of the measure was elaborated by Dr. Stanislav Buchta, CSc. and was published in the scientific contribution "Possible solutions of unemployment of workers in agriculture and construction industry" in Agricultural Economics 7/2003.The evaluation ex ante analysis was realised as a part of the bilateral project MATRA "System of regular monitoring, analysis and evaluation of employment policy", which was carried out in 2001-2003 in partnership with the National Labour Office and the Socio-economic Research Institute at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The analysis has focused on several groups of assessment perspectives such as problems of analysis, the participation of employers and employees in the proposed system of "maintaining wage", implementation aspects, comparison of proposed measure with the measures already realised, submission of alternative solution and evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of the measure.

Goal of the paper is to identify opportunities and threats following from the European integration process and influencing the agribusiness entities in the accession country - Slovak Republic. These topics have begun one of the current themes connected with the approaching date of the Slovak Republic accession to the European Union. It is related to the fact, that agrarian but mostly food processing markets have their own specificities, appearing with their typical high sensitivity to the outside environment influence and strong enterprise motivation to competition. In the paper, there are also outlined tasks for business management to analyze external environment, to identify the decisive strengths and weaknesses, to overcome difficulties to adopt European standards and to use opportunities in a wider market place.

Labile Al forms can be dangerous in acid soils due to their potential toxicity to plants. This paper deals with the distribution of exchangeable, weakly organically bound, and total organically bound Al forms in soils on 98 sites of the Jizera Mountains region. For the extraction of these Al forms, 0.5M KCl (Al_KCl), 0.3M CuCl₂ (Al_CuCl2), and 0.05M Na₄P₂O₇ (Al_Na4P2O7) solutions were used, respectively. Aluminium concentrations in all extracts were determined by means of ICP-OES. Following mean concentrations of Al forms were found in the O and B horizons (mg/kg): Al_KCl - 1236 and 832, Al_CuCl2 - 4268 and 1945, and Al_Na4P2O7 - 5043 and 8420. Basic soil characteristics were determined by commonly used methods. Their influence on Al forms distribution was assessed. Factor analysis showed that the most important soil factors controlling Al forms distribution were soil reaction and the total content of Ca (or Ca and Mg in the B horizon).

This study was carried out in Atatürk Central Horticultural Research Institute at Yalova in 1996 and 1997 in order to determine the frost resistance ability of fruit buds of Hayward and Matua cultivars by artificial freezing tests during winter months. Twig samples for artificial freezing tests were taken one week after defoliation, and at three-week intervals throughout the winter. The buds were exposed to temperatures of -10°C, -13°C and -15°C for 2, 4 and 6 hours. Then they were planted in a greenhouse for survival tests. It was found that -13°C and -15°C were very harmful temperatures for both cultivars even for the duration of 2 hours at -15⁰C. On the other hand, both cultivars could resist to -10°C for the duration of 6 hours. In general, Hayward is more sensitive to frost than Matua. Both cultivars showed higher resistance in February. As a result, Hayward and Matua cultivars could be grown safely in areas with as low temperatures as -10°C in winter months.

Social functions of forests were evaluated at Židlochovice Forest Enterprise by applying the method of Vyskot et al. (1996-2002). Real potentials of social forest functions were determined for all stand groups included in a forest management plan (FMP). The results of evaluation were processed in a database and projected in GIS. Tables and charts were used for the evaluation of results. We can claim on the basis of the results that the forest stands of the examined area are characterized by a very high potential to fulfil a bio-production social function. On the contrary, they have a low potential to fulfil social functions of ecological stabilization and edaphic soil conservation and hydric-hydrological function. The results of evaluation of the real potentials of social forest functions at Židlochovice Forest Enterprise are represented by the forest stands of management group No. 19 of forest management plan area Židlochovice.

Forest management in the Czech Republic (CR) was not shaped in the environment of natural forests but in the territory that was influenced by unregulated felling and animal grazing for a long time. Hence the fear for sustainable and balanced benefits from forests endangered by long-term uncontrolled exploitation was legitimate. Almost after three centuries of application of the sustainability principle, forests are considered not only as a source of renewable wood raw material but also as a tool of the environment formation. Mountain forests are an important landscape component of this country. They are an object of specific importance from the aspect of natural environment conservation, stabilization of natural processes and general landscape homeostasis. In addition, they fulfil a number of production and non-production functions. Cardinal elements of sustainable forest management in the CR conditions are as follows: management of the forest as an ecosystem, i.e. transition from exclusive care of forest tree species and their stands to care of the whole forest ecosystems; restructuring (conversion, reconstruction) of damaged and declining forests; optimum (species, genetic, spatial, age) structure of forest ecosystems differentiated according to site conditions and management targets; differentiated transition from general management to group or individual methods; utilization and support of spontaneous processes such as natural regeneration, competition and other principles of self-regulation. The above cardinal elements of sustainable forest management are applicable to forests of the CR in general, but their importance considerably increases in mountain forests where many species survive on the margin of subsistence. Moreover, mountain forests of CR have been heavily destroyed by anthropogenic factors, especially air-pollution ecological stresses, during the last three or four decades.

The contribution deals with the analysis of methodological approaches to the general evaluation of enterprise results. It is concerned mainly about the methodology of evaluation of financial health of enterprises in the frame of the program SAPARD and further about the possible outline of methodology in the frame of the Sector Operational Plan for agriculture and the Payment Agency. This contribution was prepared in frame of solution of the Institutional Research Intention MSM 411100013.

The article analyses situation on the labour market in 1999-2003, with particular focus on the agricultural population, and explains the pressure that forces agricultural employers to reduce their full-time staff and rely more on the seasonal and short-term employment arrangements. In the recent past, the segment of rotating workers (who take up short-term seasonal jobs between periods of unemployment), has taken on quite a significant dimension. The article also analyses territorial aggregations with high incidence of agricultural unemployment. It points at the regular, seasonal and increased layouts of agricultural workers who end up in the register of unemployed. It identifies the social risk connected with the seasonal type of work arrangements in agriculture from the viewpoint of the labour and social protection and increased social marginalisation of this social group.

This paper deals with large-scale mountain forest decline in the Šumava National Park. The changes in biotic and abiotic properties of forest sites follow the tree layer disintegration. Changed microclimatic conditions such as intensity of irradiance, moisture and temperature of the top holorganic layers together with altered development of ground vegetation could strongly affect the values of microbiological respiration activity and the rates of nitrogen mineralization and nitrification. Soil substrates, built of organic mater, located on stony locations, are endangered by introskeletal erosion. This paper compares these features in pairs of research plots, consisting of dead or cut forest and of living stand. According to the results of this study, higher rates of organic matter decomposition, transformed dynamics of nitrogen and other nutrients and possible nutrient leaching from soil solutions were demonstrated in the forest floor under declined spruce stands. The extent and seriousness of these adverse processes for forest soils are strongly site dependent.

The effect of thinning on the structure and accumulation of litterfall and holorganic horizons (L, F, H) in young Norway spruce stands was investigated. The research was conducted on a Norway spruce thinning experiment Polom (established in 1980) in the Orlické hory Mts. (north-eastern part of the Czech Republic). In 1992, the monitoring of litterfall started on an unthinned control stand (plot 1) and on a comparative stand with very heavy thinning from below (plot 3). During the period of observation (age of the stand 27-37 years), the total weight of litterfall ranged between 1,800 and 4,800 kg/ha. The amount of litterfall was partly influenced by climatic factors (precipitation and temperature), growth processes (basal area increment) and thinning regimes in individual years. The results of the investigations showed that dry biomass accumulated under a 36 years old Norway spruce stand ranged from 9,200 to 11,300 kg/ha in horizon L, from 37,000 to 38,200 kg/ha in horizon F and from 138,300 to 146,400 kg/ha in horizon H. The quality (content of basic nutrients) of litterfall and material from holorganic horizons are discussed.

By means of Sörensen's index and Renkonen's number, the differences in species composition and abundance of the ground beetles (Carabidae) were specified in 5 forest altitudinal zones (3^rd, 5^th-8^th) and also the faunal similarity in the linking-up forest altitudinal zones. The entry of some species (Carabus coriaceus, Carabus violaceus, Pterostichus niger and Pterostichus oblongopunctatus) into higher altitudes was much more marked than is mentioned in hitherto published information. The objective of the present study was to explore the potential use of the ground beetles as an ancillary component of the geobiocoenological typological system.

Nowadays, many enterprises face the problem of implementing their enterprise information system in order to keep pace with their competition. It holds generally for all types of enterprises, as e.g. manufacturing, agricultural, trading, financial, transportation, educational, etc. This paper deals with the basic rules for building an information system of the enterprise, particularly of medium or large ones. The attention is focussed at the problems each enterprise must address before starting an IS project. These are mainly the enterprise information policy planning, project feasibility and forms of its management.

In the year before the accession to the European Union, the Slovak agricultural sector reported a loss of SKK 2.4 billion and following a profitable year, the earnings were reduced by SKK 2.8 billion. The situation was caused by a number of reasons, namely reduced sales of agricultural products, damage resulting from adverse weather effects (cold weather, hail, drought and swine fever), as well as widening of the price gap compared to the year before (increasing input prices in agriculture and decreasing purchase prices of agricultural products, especially in livestock production). Legal entities and natural persons experienced mixed business success. While 51% of legal entities made profit, the figure rose to 76% in the group of natural persons. Both the agricultural cooperatives and trading companies performed with a loss. The loss per hectare of agricultural land (a.l.) was substantially lower in the case of business companies. Natural persons - private farmers were profitable over the period. The gap between the profitable and loss-making enterprises has widened. Some 60% of profitable enterprises owned by legal entities made only a small profit below SKK 0.5 million. The loss-making performance was typical for more productive areas of Slovakia. This was related to stronger effects of adverse climate in 2003.

Possibilities of herbicide applications to the self-heal (Prunella vulgaris L.) growth were tested in 1997-1998. Experiments showed that the application of pre-emergence herbicides in the Prunella vulgaris L. growth was efficient when 3 l/ha ofherbicide with 500 g/lisoproturon as an active ingredient were used. Herbicide applications had no influence on the emergence rate of direct seeding. Among the post-emergence herbicides it is possible to use glyphosate-IPA in 50% concentration by the wick applicator to Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevski. The results of these experiments can be used as a basis for testing the herbicide biological efficacy in the framework of minority indications for cultivated medicinal plants. .