Our Movies

African swine fever is a devastating disease of domestic and feral pigs, which has spread from Eastern Europe to the west since 2007. This disease causes almost 100% mortality, especially in domestic pigs. From a global perspective, it significantly affects domestic pig farmers and the pork market. This video shows how wildlife management science helped in the eradication of African swine fever in the Czech Republic. Scientific outputs represent a very important basis for crisis management. Their use in the fight against African swine fever in the Czech Republic is one such example. Based on scientific knowledge, new measures were applied and were very effective. Proof of this is that the crisis plans from the Czech Republic have been taken over up by most European Union countries. In September 2018, there was a case of African swine fever in a wild boar population in Belgium. The Belgian state authorities used the same model as in the Czech Republic and their approach was also successful. The last positive case of wild boar was found in November 2019, and it really looks like they managed to stop the infection. The Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences CZU in Prague continues to test measures for the spread of dangerous diseases of in wild animals and applies scientific outputs in practice.

This movie entitled "Borderless forest" was produced within the project SUSTREE "Conservation and sustainable utilization of forest tree diversity in climate change“, Project Number CE614 (Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE). The film draws attention to the current issue of the reproductive material transfer within Central Europe, especially to legislative barriers of transfer, but also points out the problematic sharing of evidence on available reproductive material. SUSTREE does not target the introduction of exotic forest tree species but rather recommends the use of adaptive capacities within domestic tree species that form the basis of currently developed delineation models. The extreme climatic conditions of recent years underline the need for wider European cooperation at the level of practical management of forests and shared registers of reproductive material.

How do primary forests deal with climate change? Will they be in danger in the future? As a result of extreme temperature increases, natural disturbances such as storms, droughts, fires and bark beetle attacks are increasing. Is this surge of natural disruption vital to the forest? In an effort to clarify this issue, we first looked into the past. How often did Boia Mica forests have to fight with bark beetle or drought over the centuries? And how fast these primary forests recover? The result is clear. We found that these ecosystems can recover quickly after disruption. Our data show that primary forests were often affected by disasters in the past. But primary forests did not suffer permanent damage. This amazing ability to regenerate is one of the main differences between primary forests and forests that are managed by people.