In 1956 Act No. 40/1956 Coll. About state nature conservation was processed and subsequently approved by the Parliament. It was the first legal standard in Czechoslovakia after long unsuccessful pre-war attempts. The act introduced first legal categories of protected areas – national nature reserve, protected natural feature and protected landscape area. The act allowed legally anchoring the protection of virgin forests declared so far only by their owners. It was influenced by the period of issue and enabled a number of exceptions. Moreover, the institutional nature protection did not have any powers except of advisory and methodology activities.
The first protected landscape area was declared in 1954 (PLA Český Ráj), the first national park in 1963 (Krkonoše NP).
With regard to the state ownership of 95% of forests (due to the forced nationalization after 1948), a network of special protected areas was gradually established around the country without the need to tackle issues concerning owners and their loss of production. The problem arose during main property restitution wave in 1991 after the “Velvet Revolution” restitution laws.
