Environmental Protection Ministry says allegations that the Plitvice Lakes National Park will lose its UNESCO World Heritage status are unfounded.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy denied on Friday media reports that the Plitvice Lakes National Park could be expelled from the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, adding that they were doing everything they could in order to reduce pressure on Plitvice and respond to UNESCO’s objections, reports Nacional on November 4, 2016.
The media on Thursday reported that the Plitvice Lakes National Park was close to losing the UNESCO World Heritage status and that the administration of the National Park had not yet received a notice that a moratorium on the construction within the Park was announced. The moratorium on construction was one of four requirements made by UNESCO for Plitvice to remain included on its list of world natural heritage sites.
“The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy is doing everything in order to reduce pressure on the Plitvice Lakes National Park and address objections made by UNESCO. We emphasize that at this point the reports saying that the Park could be expelled from the World Heritage list are baseless”, said the Ministry in a statement.
The Plitvice Lakes National Park is the most well-known natural site in Croatia and one of biologically richest parts of Croatia, and its preservation is in Croatian public interest, said the Ministry. They noted that the long-standing practice of tolerating excessive tourist exploitation and construction in the area had endangered the protected natural area.
“The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy is aware of the problems, as well as of the recommendations made by the UNESCO Committee of World Heritage. In the last six months, we have been working intensively to solve them in cooperation with the Plitvice Lakes National Park and the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning”, said the Ministry. Their goal is effective protection of Plitvice and a reduction in both the number of visitors and construction activities.
The Ministry pointed out that they had established good interdepartmental cooperation to find a common solution for all the key issues, including the issuing of building permits and amending the spatial plan for the area. Following the recommendations of the UNESCO Committee on World Heritage, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has been invited to launch a monitoring mission, in order to obtain an objective opinion on the situation in the park and determine optimal solutions.
“The Plitvice Lakes National Park is part of Croatian and global heritage. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy is fully committed to the long-term preservation of Plitvice and would like to reiterate that at this point there is absolutely no discussion about expelling the Park from the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites”, concluded the Ministry.
