Prawne podstawy ochrony i kształtowania krajobrazu Krainy Wielkich Jezior Mazurskich

The dissertation cites the basic legal regulations governing landscape conservation and management, including the extent to which they are formally binding and affecting the landscape of the Great Masurian Lake District. The extent to which these legal regulations govern the area has been presented graphically on a map depicting the analyzed land. Taking into the consideration the legislative source of particular legal acts as well as the extent to which they govern the whole district, a picture of legally protected nature areas has been obtained, including the specific features and the weight of each nature protection act. In parallel, the status of spatial zoning has been examined in the communes (gmina) situated in the analyzed area and the way administrative decisions are actually passed by the supervising district administrative units (starostwo). The analysis presented in this article enables the author to formulate a general conclusion that the question of 'landscape protection' is largely a consequence of the lexical function of this term in each of the currently binding legal regulations. It is difficult to establish common ground for all the binding regulations in order to achieve a successful and multi-facet conservation of landscape values. The existing law does not prevent degradation (unfortunately already visible in many places) of the unique landscape unless the local governments of each of the analyzed communes will actively and purposefully participate in nature protection.