Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

After its accession to the EU, Croatia established the ecological net- work Natura 2000 that covers over 36 per cent of land territory, and rep- resents the second largest ecological network in the EU in relation to Member State area [ ] 86 Nature parks underpin the potential for regional development Protected Areas are a Croatian success story. By the end of 2012 there were 431 protected areas in the country, classified in nine national categories and covering 8.68 per cent of the total surface of national terri- tory (including 12.44 per cent land territory and 1.95 per cent of internal waters and territorial sea). More than 50 per cent of area is covered by nature parks. There is an increase in their total surface at state level from 7.06 per cent in 2008 to 8.68 per cent in 2012, mostly due to protection of two new large regional parks in 2009. Eight new areas were protected between 2008 and 2013 — two regional parks, two signifi- cant landscapes, three monuments of park architecture and one nature monument. For four of these areas the boundaries and/or categories of protection have been changed. Additionally, baseline studies have been prepared for the potential protection of 32 areas. The Mura-Dra- va-Danube has been declared as a transboundary biosphere reserve. The area of the Nature Park Vransko jeze- ro has been included in the Ramsar List. Among the national protected areas there are several with interna- tional designation: one World Herit- age site (Plitvička Jezera National Park and, in 2017, Primeval forests of the Carpathian beech and other parts of Europe), five Ramsar sites (Crna Mla- ka, Lonjsko i Mokro polje, Kopački rit, Delta Neretve and Vransko Jezero), two biosphere reserves (Velebit moun- tain and TBR MuraDrava-Danube) and one GEOPARK Papuk. Progress was achieved with the protection of new areas, international designations of protected areas and management planning. Given that protected areas, particularly national and nature parks, provide the core potential for regional development, investment in the preparation of projects to improve nature educa- tion facilities and infrastructure for visitors will ensure the set up of education and the raising of public awareness. This reaches the objec- tives of sustainable management and provides benefits to the local and re- gional economy by attracting inward investment and enhancing local im- age and quality of life. Additionally, the new framework in management of national and nature parks was the adoption of a new visual identity to further underpin their potential for regional development. C ompared to its relatively small area of 56,594 km², Croatia is endowed with exceptional richness and diversity of species and habitats. Geomorphological differences between lowland, mountain and coastal Croatia as well as the great diversity of terrestrial, marine and underground habitats have resulted in a wealth of species. The northern part of the country is characterized by lowland rivers with well-preserved willow-poplar gallery forests and common oak forests, wet grasslands and extensive marshes. The mountain karst area of the Dinaric Alps is covered with the beech and mixed beech-fir forests that represent the most westerly extensive forest complex in this part of the Europe, with significant populations of brown bear, wolf and Eurasian lynx. National Park Brijuni Renco Kosinožić, Parks of Croatia Croatia