As part of the activities aimed at reducing pressure on Plitvice Lakes National Park, representatives of UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – who conduct expert evaluations of UNESCO – were part of a reactive monitoring mission initiated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy in Croatia. The purpose of the mission was to form opinions on the state of the park, as well as to present optimal solutions.
Representative of the Secretariat of UNESCO Sussana Kari and Pierre Galland from IUCN met in Zagreb last week with representatives from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy, the Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning, the Croatian Agency for the environment and nature, the Croatian Institute for Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Tourism and Croatian Waters and NP Plitvice Lakes, reports HRTurizam on January 17, 2017.
The meeting was centered on the current state of Plitvice Lakes National Park, and focused on the problems the park faces due to their large number of visitors, as well as the problems with the spatial plan and the related issuance of building permits, inspections, and the water supply system and drainage.
After the initial meeting, the plan of the representatives as part of this reactive monitoring mission in Croatia was to visit Plitvice Lakes National Park and hold meetings with representatives of the Park, the local government, and all other stakeholders involved in the issue of excessive attendance.
The reactive monitoring mission called on the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy to be aware of the problems that pressure by too many visitors and increased construction can cause for Plitvice Lakes National Park.
“Our main goal is the effective protection and preservation of Plitvice Lakes National Park through better management of visitors and increased control of building facilities and other infrastructure, so that the pressure of tourism activities would not compromise the values for which the park was included in the UNESCO list,” said the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy.
The Ministry, in cooperation with other bodies, will develop a joint action plan to address the identified problems for each of the sectors (physical planning and construction, environmental protection, water management) – and as instructed by UNESCO, after the completion of the mission, will take further necessary steps to solve the problems.
