The UNESCO reactive monitoring mission does not foresee placing Plitvice Lakes National Park on the List of World Heritage in Danger this year, but the park must adhere to a dozen detailed recommendations.
Minister of Environmental Protection Slaven Dobrović expressed satisfaction on Thursday that the UNESCO reactive monitoring mission report stated that it does not envisage placing Plitvice Lakes National Park on the List of World Heritage in danger this year. As a precaution, the park has been given a detailed list of recommendations, and at the next UNESCO session in 2018, the park’s progress in terms of complying with the recommendations will be reviewed, reports Lokalni.Vecernji.hr on March 29, 2017.
“I expect that we will be able to address these challenges with the appropriate answers,” said Dobrović at a press conference for the Ministry of Environment and Energy. At the press conference, Dobrović also announced that they will establish an interdepartmental working group which will successively deal with all issues.
This season, Plitvice Lakes National Park will introduce some changes in their visitor model. In an effort to avoid over-congestion, in the months of July and August, the park will close their doors once a certain number of visitors have entered the park, and re-open them when more capacity becomes available.
According to estimates, Plitvice Lakes National Park can accommodate about 10,000 people at once, but it is ultimately up to the decision of the park. The park may also introduce the possibility of buying tickets online.
“We have received the UNESCO reactive monitoring mission report and we received a visit in January this year which reviewed the situation at Plitvice considering there is a problem and a threat to ‘remove’ Plitvice Lakes National Park from the List of UNESCO’s World Heritage, which is certainly something we would like to avoid. The report states a dozen fairly detailed recommendations. It is good to hear that Plitvice Lakes National Park will not be placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger this year,” said Dobrović.
Dobrović stressed that the recommendations relate to preparing strategic environmental impact assessments for the spatial plan, making revisions of building permits, developing a park management plan, developing an action plan for visitor management, solving problems of water supply and drainage, and traffic issues.
Assistant Minister for Nature Protection Igor Kreitmeyer stressed that the Ministry, in cooperation with the park, has already taken certain steps to address the issues that have been found.
