Rožnov sits inside a protected area, and as an environmental organisation, the nature and culture here are things they genuinely hold close to heart.
Tourism has brought real advantages on that front. The municipality understands that nature has to be preserved if the region is going to stay attractive to visitors at all — and to keep public support behind their own work, the municipality has helped set up an information centre focused on nature and the environment.
Schoolchildren visit through organised school trips and, more often than not, come away genuinely curious about nature's problems, and its possibilities.
Because tourism makes it financially possible to invest more in nature, they'd like to see it continue — and, cautiously, even grow a little further.
But there are limits, and they matter. Tourism's profits must never come at nature's expense. Right now, they're watching investors push to build inside the protected areas themselves, and it's become clear that money's pull is sometimes simply stronger than nature's. They hope those investors get stopped in time — and that tourists, for their part, simply choose not to do business with companies like that.
“Sometimes you see it clearly: the power of money is stronger than the power of nature.”
They expect tourists to be genuinely receptive to that argument, since most people who come here are drawn by nature in the first place. There are two things, specifically, that do real harm to the local environment: too many private cars, and too many skiers. Their ask is straightforward — use your own car as little as you possibly can while you're here.
And if you're here for a winter sports holiday, stick closely to the guidelines responsible winter-sports experts recommend. Cooperate on that front, and together, they believe, nature here can genuinely be kept intact.