30 YEARS OF LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY IN SLOVAKIA

Slovakia does not have that tradition in landscape research, as some E uropean countries have (for example Germany, or Russia). It began to d evelop at the beginning of 60s, when the Department of Landscape Biolo gy at the Biological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences was f ounded. In 1965 the Department was transformed into the Institute of L andscape Biology (the present Institute of Landscape Ecology), which b ecame the centre for landscape research in Slovakia. The focus has bee n laid on the elaboration of the methodology of landscape-ecological p lanning (LANDEP). For these purposes methods of the evaluation of the primary, secondary and tertiary landscape structures, of landscape sta bility and of the ecological infrastructure of landscape have been dev eloped. The Institute was contemporarily a centre of the international cooperation in landscape ecology. The landscape research has been als o developed at the Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences, where the focus has been laid on the evaluation of landscape potentia l. As the landscape research has been taken as a tool for solving envi ronmental issues, the landscape has been defined in relation to man, a s his home. The approach of carrying capacity has been developed for t hese purposes. At present the investigation of man's environmental per ception and behaviour are the central topic in the geographical part o f landscape ecology. The main task of the landscape ecology in Slovaki a at present is the development of an integrated approach to environme ntal strategy and policy of the state and of principles of the sustain able development.