There is a generally accepted belief that nature protection poses some limits to the life of people living in large scale protected areas; namely that it limits or even disables some of their economic activities. However, analyses of official statistical data do not prove the fact that territories of Biosphere reserves in the Czech Republic differ from the surrounding areas as to the parameters of the living standard of their inhabitants, infrastructure and services. Additionally there was conducted a questionnaire survey in 2004 in three Biospheres reserves (Křivoklátsko, Třeboňsko and Šumava Mts.) with 1150 respondents interviewed. This sociological survey revealed that inhabitants of large scale protected areas themselves did generally not feel handicapped by the nature protection measures. On the contrary, some of them have already learned comparative advantages of the fact of living in "reserves”.