KRNAP will build an environmental education center in Vrchlabí

Vrchlabí (Trutnov Region) - The management of the Krkonošsko National Park (KRNAP) will build a modern environmental education center in close proximity to its headquarters in Vrchlabí. The construction of the facility, costing approximately 89 million crowns, is set to begin this autumn and should be completed by the end of 2011. KRNAP has recently received a grant from European Union funds for the construction. The park director Jan Hřebačka announced this to reporters today.
    According to him, the Krkonošské Center for Environmental Education will serve as a place for the education and upbringing of children, youth, and adults. It will allow for the organization of lectures and conferences. "Colleagues from the Polish Krkonošsko National Park will also be able to use it. There is no similar facility on the Polish side of the Krkonoš," said Hřebačka.
    The main part of the building is to be hidden in the slope underground, with a walkable roof. The shape of the building is intended to derive from the typology of the Krkonoš and should serve as an abstract model for understanding the landscape of the highest Czech mountains. Inside the facility, there will be, for example, a lecture hall for nearly 80 people, a classroom with a gallery for 30 persons, and an ecological laboratory.
    The educational center is not the only project for which the national park has successfully secured EU funding. Currently, KRNAP, with EU support, is carrying out or preparing nearly a dozen projects worth more than 200 million crowns. Some of them are joint projects with the Polish Krkonošsko National Park.
    "Now, together with the Poles, we are starting a joint project on a geographic information system, the main goal of which is to improve nature conservation," said Hřebačka. The project is valued at 32 million crowns. KRNAP is also working with the Polish side on a project for the development of tourist infrastructure costing 44 million crowns. This includes the revitalization of the Vrchlabí monastery garden, the establishment of a geological exhibition, and the construction of an information center in the Polish town of Karpacz.
    EU funds have also supported a project for the reconstruction of Krkonoš tourist trails and forest roads for 51 million crowns. "Currently, the first part is underway, the repair of the trail to the source of the Elbe from the direction of Harrachov for just under a million crowns," said park spokesman Radek Drahný. The majority of the funds will then go towards the repair of nearly 19 kilometers of forest roads by the end of next year.