Problematyka prawna parków krajobrazowych na przykładzie Ślężańskiego Parku Krajobrazowego

The article deals with landscape parks and, more extensively, with areas legally protected due to their natural and cultural merits, an issue discussed in the introduction. Regulations concerning the protection of the environment and historical monuments are contained in the larger part of the article. The situation of landscape parks in Poland has finally been regulated by a law on the protection of the natural environment, passed in 1991. It follows from it that areas which represent natural, cultural and historical merits are created for the sake of the preservation, popularization and dissemination of those values; at the same time, they serve social education and rational leisure. In Great Britain, the United States or Germany, similar areas (landscape parks, Naturparke) appeared earlier than in Poland; their intention was to preserve the unity of Nature and the cultural qualities of the landscape. Attempts at introducing the domination of the protection of select elements of the landscape e. g. ecological, over others, e. g. traces of old settlements or architectonic monuments, shattered this unity. The Ślęża Landscape Park, created in 1988, is an almost classical example of the occurrence in a single region of variegated plant life and geological structure, a specific climate and rich animal life as well as unique cult sculptures, archeological sites which disclose historical traces of man existence, old village patterns and monuments of architecture — testimony of the historical development of the region. All the elements of the hilly woodland — truly ecological — landscape supplement the cultural landscape; more, from ancient days, the two coexist in altering forms. An analysis of the legal situation of the protected areas and the instruments servicing this purpose point to a conclusion which postulates the protection of the unity of Nature and historical monuments.