My name is Michal and I originally come from Prague in the Czech Republic. My hobbies are writing, reading and sports like playing football, but also whitewater kayaking. I also love skiing in winter and I like nature at all. This year I should finish my studies and make my bachelor in political and media science at Masaryk University in Brno.

You said you like nature very much – what motivated you to work for an environmental Non Governmental Organisation (NGO)?

In high school I got some information about sustainable development and in my childhood I was close to nature because of our cottage and our house where we had a garden and so on - and as I gained information about environmental problems and ways of sustainable development I got very interested in these topics. So the next steps were that I was looking for a way on how to cultivate hemp without problems. I found information in the internet that hemp is also very good for the environment and that I can get varieties of hemp without THC (the psychotic substance). Therefore I decided together with some friends to rent a little field and to try to grow THC-free hemp. It was an amazing experience, but most of our plants were harvested by the people of the village, because they thought it contained THC (laughing). We even put up tables with information on our work. Eventually I recognised that I have to work on it. Hence I joined the organisation KONOPA, began to work on projects and after a year I became one of two full members (laughing) and I commenced to be something like the leader. In the course of time we made progress and formed a team of four or five people. This was the beginning of my work with the KONOPA organisation.

When you said you learned about sustainable development that was the time you started growing hemp. But normally when people like to get active for nature they collect rubbish or go out to nature and protect biotopes. How did you get around to start with hemp?

We were young and interested in hemp so we were seeking after a relaxing drug and we didn’t want to buy hemp on the black market – that was the first step. And we had really bad experiences with the guys from the black market. So we said: “Hey, come on, let’s plant our own hemp” – but it’s illegal - so it’s not very funny sometimes. Therefore I was looking for ways to grow this marvellous plant without the fear of growing illegally. Hence I surfed the internet for more information on hemp growing and I found this link to a webpage. We are still preparing this action called “100 flowers – plant your hemp without fear”. We bought these packages with the seeds and went on.

Most people might only know of the narcotic way of using hemp, but can you tell us about the environmental friendly functions of hemp and how it could save the environment?

Oh yes. The hemp plant is good, because it has very deep roots that can take water from deeper layers and also has the ability to clean the soil very well. As in these days with intensive agriculture we have very big problems with erosion, chemical pollution of the soil, we have problems with high mechanisation and pesticides as well as herbicides. Therefore hemp, thanks to its big leaves and height, does not need any herbicides and it also doesn’t need any pesticides, because of some special substances inside the plant. It produces its own pesticides. Finally, when you for example have some garden that was full of waste, you can plant some hemp seeds and the plant will clean your soil in about two years. You can start to become an ecological, biological producer. Thus I believe hemp gives an excellent opportunity to go from one very problematical industrial scale of producing to another near to permacultural and ecological, sustainable, local production.

You are talking about the substances which hemp can substitute, for example linen and cotton for making clothes. Can you also tell us something about substitutes for plastics and how plastics harm the environment?

I believe the main problem of the contemporary world is the oil production (petroleum), so first of all hemp and other crops can substitute oil in its total. We don’t need any plastics, we don’t need any synthetics! We don’t need this stuff which pollutes the air, the soil and the waters on every part of its chain. People have known this all the time and all the years and in the beginning of the 20th century when the petroleum industry started to become very strong, there were very high political battles and unfortunately hemp lost this battle and started to be prohibited. So from that moment oil was backed and advanced against other resources, petroleum became the number one resource in the world. From that moment we had a very big problem with pollution and we have to solve it now!

And is hemp a possible substitute? What can you make from hemp?

First of all you can make fibres, which were already produced in our agricultural civilisations. You can also make food, house building materials, cosmetic products, paper, plastics etc.. Plastics contain still about 50 percent polypropylene, acryl compounds and some other products made of oil. It is just a question of time and development until these substances will be replaced by some renewable materials coming from natural oil.

What could you recommend people who are interested in this really versatile plant. Is it easy to grow hemp? Is it allowed? What is the reason that people don’t grow that much hemp nowadays?

In western countries growing hemp was restricted. The changes coming with the climate change, the air pollution and the big environmental problems brought the European Commission to the decision to change the policy and they started to implement a new law in 1996. In these days we have 18 varieties of technical hemp in the European Union, which can be grown in many different climatic areas. Hence it is not a big problem to find the best variety for your climatic conditions. There are no big problems with growing hemp in Europe and the doors are open. Now we just have to take the opportunity, ask for investments from structure funds, from special European funds, which are especially going into the development of the countryside because it is the most connected area with growing hemp. You can give people in the countryside the opportunity of a really beneficial job. You can connect it with producing renewable energy, renewable resources, building materials, insulations, fibres, cosmetic products and so on. Thereby the planters can be self sufficient. And it’s the main idea of our organisation to give people the opportunity to be self sufficient, to make local sustainable development projects of the countryside and use this plant in the best way it can be used. So replace all that centralised and very dangerous resources, materials and energy by this locally grown, very nice and very healthy plant.

We wish you good luck for that. Additionally in a more general view, could you tell us, which environmental problems do exist in the Czech Republic?

The CR (Czech Republic) is a former member of so-called communist block (the East). So, most of our environmental problems come from those times. CR, even it’s quite a small country, abounds many beautiful and unique natural places (in fact, our border mountains form watershed of many European rivers). Many of them were brutally polluted or destroyed during that period of heavy industrialisation and lacking waste policy. After the Velvet revolution in 1989 there was strong power to deal with environmental problems (environmentalists were one of the strongest opposition groups in the last decade of the former regime). In the first 5 years a lot of environmental improvements took place, but mostly at the end of production cycles. So, the biggest factories got filters and sewage plants and so forth. Disused industry was restructured (reduced): mostly coal and heavy metal industry and some chemical factories. Thanks to these arrangements the quality of air and water has increased. Many wild animals are coming back to our country as beaver, otter or lynx. But there were no real changes in the character of our industry. We are still energy dependent on coal and atomic power, many people still lack environmental education, politicians as well… Many new dangers came from the “former West” too: much more cars need much more roads and produce much more smog, new factories rise on our fields just on the borders with natural reservations and our laws and politicians are not able to stop this “dictatorship of capital”. Also the use of plastics grows very fast – instead of closed recycling systems for glass and paper we have to learn how to use plastics sparingly (there was no infrastructure for this). And by the time of learning a mountain-high of plastic waste is growing and many plastics are burned in incinerator plants or in home stoves. Speaking about the biggest environmental problems in CR means speaking about continuing totalitarianism, old-fashion thought and irresponsibility (connected with corruption) in mind and behaviour of the people, especially of our political representatives and white-collars, not only those on the highest level but on a regional level as well. We (env.NGO) counter mostly megalomaniac intention of foreign companies (corporations) supported (or initiated) by our own government on the field of energy, transportation, so-called development of problematic regions and so on. For example the Department of industry together with the still state energetic company ÈEZ push brown coal mining, which already devastated huge areas of North-West Bohemia. Only a few original villages remained there from once one of the most beautiful and wealthy regions. And still they continue to liquidate this heritage by mining to “solve our energy problem”. Another example is connected to transportation. There is big pressure to build a cascade of dams at the Elbe, near to German border, to make the river navigable for bigger boats. No matter if this part of Elbe is a habitat for many endangered species which will loose their environment if they build it up. So, those two examples are the most discussed problems of our days. But there are many others: highway via Czech Middle-mountain area, by-pass roads, planed canal Dunaj - Odra - Labe, building-up of tourist houses in mountain or rural areas with no respect to character of the place, cutting down forests for wood sold abroad, Spolana Neratovice and other chemical companies with insufficient security systems, Atomic energy plant Temelín, rising of skiing areas and so on. We have to guard our natural richness carefully and permanently and we have to work on its improvement very much.

Is there anything activists/young people from other countries could contribute to help the environmental protection in the Czech Republic?

Sure, much of our natural heritage is situated at the borders of our country (in the mountains or at the border rivers). People from the other side of this border should collaborate for the protection of our environment esp. in transportation problems. Not only river roads but also highways are build in the frame of the EU NET program. So, we have to say together that we don’t need and we don’t want roads which destroy any unique place of our common land, that we don’t support increase of transportation of goods inside the EU and inside Europe at all. Let’s make it clear, that we like to save our environment for our children and that we are ready to fulfil our and their needs on regional level by promoting a local and sustainable way of living, using renewable resources and technologies. I think this is the biggest task we have to do together – our voice has to be heard all around Europe and all around the world. There are also many little projects for those who like to work in real environmental protection. The best way is to contact some regional NGO directly or with help of association of Czech env. NGO “Zelený kruh” (Green circle, www.zelenykruh.cz ).

Thanks for the interview.