ZAGREB, 25 July, 2021 - The Lonjsko Polje Nature Park has seen a three-digit rise in visitors' statistics so far this year compared to 2020, and the planned opening of a centre for the black stork (ciconia nigra) in September will make the park even more attractive for guests, the park's representatives have told Hina.

In the first half of 2021, the number of visitors in this nature park, 90 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, skyrocketed by 150% compared to H1 2020, however the figures are still below the pre-pandemic period.

Broken down by citizenship, apart from local guests from all parts of Croatia, there were also more and more French, German, Polish and British travellers visiting this part of Croatia.

Of the 250 bird species living in the park, 170 also nest there. The village of Čigoč is known as the stork village.

A new centre dedicated to the black stork in the village of Osekovo will be opened within the park in September, and this project, worth 20 million kuna, has been co-funded by the European Union in the amount of HRK 12.8 million.

Some of the attractions in the 511-square-kilometre-large park are the village of Krapje, bird-watching in the ornithological reserve Krapje Đol, and traditional cattle grazing in Repušnicko Polje field.

The park, which is the largest protected wetland in Croatia is in the basin of the Sava and Lonja rivers.

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May 16, 2021 - Great news for wildlife in Croatia, as the Velebit Nature Park welcomed a new lynx Emil. The wild cat came from Slovakia and thus joins nearly 40 other lynxes that inhabit the park. 

As turistickeprice.hr reports, Velebit Nature Park has become richer for one beautiful cat: Emil! The new lynx arrived from Slovakia and immediately rushed out of the transport box into the Velebit area. It's a lynx, the largest European cat, but the survival of this species in the Dinaric mountains is endangered due to inbreeding. After extinction at the beginning of the 20th century, the Dinaric lynx population was re-established in 1973 by the settlement of six animals from the Slovak Carpathians in Slovenia.

The adult male lynx was caught in the Slovak Carpathians and spent two months in quarantine to make sure he arrived in Croatia healthy and with the necessary antibodies to the rabies virus. It's out of the shipping box released on Apatišan, near Krasno. In accordance with the epidemiological measures, he was accompanied by a small number of spectators, among whom a special place was taken by students from the Elementary School Krasno.

‘‘Emil is the third lynx we are releasing in the Velebit area. Last year, in the Paklenica National Park, we released Alojzije, who established the terrain in the area of ​​the municipality of Sveti Rok, and the lynx Pina, whose fate we, unfortunately, do not know. Based on the data from the photo traps, we estimate that there are about 40 adult lynxes on Velebit, so we hope that Emil will not have any problems finding a partner’’, said the director of Velebit Nature Park, Ana Brkljačić.

All lynxes present today in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are descendants of these six lynxes. Nearly 50 years of breeding close relatives without contact with lynx from other populations, resulted in genetic disorders and the only solution for survival was the re-import of lynx from the Carpathians. This is exactly what the international team of experts gathered in the LIFE Lynx project, co-financed by the European Commission, is doing. In the last three years, he has been to Slovenia and Croatia, both inhabited by a total of 13 lynxes from Slovakia and Romania, and the first descendants of inhabited males and local females have already been recorded, thus stopping inbreeding.

The new lynx found a new home in the Velebit Nature Park, which is just one of the 12 natural parks in Croatia, and you can learn more about them in Total Croatia's Guide to National and Natural Parks in Croatia, HERE. Now you can find Total Croatia articles in your language!

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ZAGREB, October 26, 2018 - The Croatian national parks Kornati, Brijuni and Mljet and the nature parks Lastovo, Telaščica, Vransko Jezero Lake and Žumberak (Samobor Hills) as well as some public institutions have shown interest in the development of the ecologically friendly tourist programmes, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stated on Friday.

That leading organisation in wildlife conservation said that its cooperation with the Kornati National Park and the Lastovo Nature Park had resulted in the launch of environmentally friendly tourist programmes and services, such as fishing tourism and traditional honey making demonstrations.

These initiatives are part of the DestiMED project, funded by the EU's MED programme and conducted by the Italian region of Lazio, IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, MedPan, Federparchi, WWF Adria, WWF Mediterranean, and the Albanian national agency for protected areas NAPA.

DestiMED "aims at building the pre-conditions for a Mediterranean destination management organisation (DMO) that will harmonise quality standards and tools to monitor compliance, propose attractive ecotourism offers promoted through a lasting brand. Specifically, the project will further develop and test ecotourism standards, offers and monitoring tools in 13 protected areas around the basin - forming the quality scheme of a future DMO. It will build on results of the MEET (Mediterranean Ecotourism Experience) project that created and tested planning and marketing approaches," reads a text on the DestiMED web site.

In Croatia there are eight national parks and 11 nature parks.

ZAGREB, July 8, 2018 - In the last six years, Croatia's 11 nature parks and eight national parks registered 17.4 million visitors, and in 2017 alone there were four million tourists in those destinations, it was said at a conference on Croatia's protected natural areas and tourism held in Zagreb.

April 9, 2018 - The renowned Nature Park will soon boast a modern visitor transport system, along with new activities and educational programmes for visitors

March 6, 2018 - The Nature Park will get a new electric train and a small boat for visitor transport, followed by some new attractive activities for visitors