The media image of the relationship between nature protection and socio-economic development in selected Protected Landscape Areas

Comparative monitoring of regional periodicals and their content analysis was done with the aim to identi-fy the media image of the relationship between nature protection and the socio-economic development of municipalities in three selected protected landscape areas – Šumava, Křivoklátsko, and Třeboňsko. Within the analysis, attention was primarily paid to the conflicts between the administration of the protected land-scape area and the municipalities, and to examples of good cooperation. Based on the results gained, we can state that Třeboňsko and Křivoklátsko proved to be areas without critical tensions, while in the Šumava Mts. ( = Bohemian Forest) there are many circumstances that prevent consensus being reached between both sides. However, recent newspaper articles reflect the fact that the situation is improving in the Šumava Mts. as well – the tension seems to vanish; municipalities and nature protection authorities manifest a growing willingness to start to communicate with one another. The analysis was conducted within the project “Par-ticipative management of protected areas – a key to minimize conflicts between biodiversity protection and socio-economic development of local municipalities ” (VaV/610/3/03, financially supported by the Ministry of Environment). The outputs are expected to be used, as one of the information sources, in formulating the communication strategy for the administration of the three particular protected areas. Key words: nature protection, socio-economic development, protected landscapes, content analysi