For this reason, especially in the week when we celebrate Earth Day, but also in the remaining days of the year, communities should support activities that seek to preserve clean air, water, energy, natural values ​​and climate stability. There are many activities and you will surely find a way to mark this important day for our planet!

In our Plitvice Lakes National Park, we traditionally celebrate Earth Day with the educational program “What’s happening to the climate?” intended for 6th grade elementary school students from the areas of Rakovica, Plitvice Lakes, Korenica, and from this year also Slunj and Cetingrad. Through this educational program, students learn about the effects of climate change, the differences between weather and climate, about the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases, as well as renewable energy sources and possibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They are actively participating through creative and research part, which contributes to the acquisition of new knowledge and learning along with creation and design.

How was it with elementary school students, see the photo gallery!

The main message of Earth Day – Our Power, Our Planet, makes it very clear that the power of people is the driving force behind every change for the benefit of the entire planet!

For more information, check out the website https://www.earthday.org/.

Objava Marking of the Earth Day 2026 pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

The City Nature Challenge (CNC) began in the United States in 2016, when employees of the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History and the California Academy of Sciences created a friendly competition between the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The competition was organized to see which city could record the largest number of plant and animal species with the largest number of participants over 8 days. Over the following years, an increasing number of cities have joined this initiative and invited their residents (or visitors) to find and document the urban biodiversity. In just 6 years, the CNC has developed into an internationally recognized urban bioblitz event.

The collection of records is carried out through media, most often photographs, and is shared on the virtual platform iNaturalist. It is an open approach that leads to data on the presence of plant and animal species. Once the observations are transferred to the virtual platform, they can be seen and identified by the entire community within the platform. The flexible nature of this methodology and its inclusiveness in terms of participation is precisely what has driven its rapid adoption around the world.

The City Nature Challenge in Croatia is organized by the Institute for Environment and Nature (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition) and compared to last year, there are now significantly more co-organizers covering 12 counties among which are Plitvice Lakes National Park and Lika-Senj County.

How to join the challenge and conduct observations and input of wild plant and animal species please check on these photos:

Objava Join this year’s City Nature Challenge 2026! pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

World Water Day, which we celebrate every year on March 22, was established by the United Nations in 1993 to raise awareness of the importance of water to our lives and the need for its sustainable use. Around 71% of our planet is made up of water, but only 2.5% of it is freshwater, of which only 1% is available for use. Water is not evenly distributed across the globe, leaving almost 2.2 billion people without access to safe drinking water today. Climate change and steady population growth further increase the water crisis and require urgent action.

The theme of this year’s celebrations is Water and Gender. It highlights the harsh realities of daily life, as water scarcity and lack of sanitation disproportionately affect women and girls, especially in many regions where poverty, gender inequality, and water scarcity are closely linked. Without safe water, sanitation and hygiene close to home, women and girls bear a heavier burden than men and boys. In eight out of ten households facing water scarcity, women and girls are responsible for collecting water.  They care for people made sick by unsafe water. They lose time, health, safety, and opportunities. And, they are often left out of decision-making. Furthermore, access to safe sanitation is essential for women’s health.

This makes the global water crisis a women’s crisis.

It’s time to centre women and girls in water solutions – not only as users, but as leaders, engineers, farmers, scientists, caregivers and changemakers. Because when women and girls are empowered to play their full role alongside men and boys, everyone thrives.

That’s why this year’s campaign is called ‘Where water flows, equality grows’.

Water plays a particularly important role in the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It creates tufa barriers, waterfalls and lakes, is a habitat for numerous plants and animals, and serves to supply drinking water and other human needs. That is why every year, on World Water Day, we also remind ourselves of the need to protect and conserve freshwater ecosystems. We have also used this opportunity for many years to inform eighth-graders from local elementary schools about the waters in our park, the problems associated with freshwater and the theme of World Water Day through presentations and workshops.

Slike: Radionice u OŠ dr. Franje Tuđmana i Oš Slunj

Objava World Water Day – Water and Gender pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

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Objava The 2nd Regional Conference of the CAMPUS Project (Interreg IT-HR) pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

The EUROPARC Federation placed our Plitvice Lakes National Park on its map of protected areas shortly after its foundation, when the 3rd session of the General Assembly of the Federation’s members was held at the Plitvice Lakes. We found an entry about this in the Plitvički Vjesnik gazette from September/October 1976, where it is stated that there were as many as 80 participants from 17 countries. That 3rd session was preceded in 1975 by the visit of the general president of EUROPARC, Dr. Herbert Offner to Croatia and the National Park when it was agreed that the Plitvice Lakes National Park would host the meeting of the EUROPARC Federation and its members.  

The conference, like all previous ones, was opened by the General Assembly of EUROPARC and its members, with the adoption of various reports from 2024 and the introduction of the new Director of the EUROPARC Organization, Mr. Alberto Arroyo Schnell. The conference continued with welcoming speeches, and Ms. Agnė Jasinavičiūtė – Trakimienė, Director of the State Institute for Protected Areas, gave a particularly interesting speech. She emphasized that her dream of bringing this conference to Lithuania with the organization and participation of all protected areas had finally come true. An important moment of the conference was the signing of the Declaration of Cooperation with Redparques from Venezuela, which emphasizes the expansion of cooperation between protected areas beyond the borders of Europe.

The common theme of this conference was “Nature for People, People for Nature”. Many presentations and workshops focused on the topics of nature and habitat restoration, new legislation, interesting project activities of protected areas, interpretation, strengthening management efficiency, cultural heritage preservation and communication. At the beginning of the conference, we had the opportunity to take a short trip to get to know the area of ​​the Nemunas River, which is characterized by the specific meandering loops.

At the Market Place, the now traditional part of the conference where protected areas present their project activities, educational materials and the specifics of their protected area, Plitvice Lakes National Park also made its contribution. We participated with educational materials, presented our high-quality picture books for younger and older children, as well as the books Trees and Shrubs and Forest Biodiversity. Brochures on natural and cultural values, tourist leaflets, but also local certified Lika quality brandy were of interest to visitors to the stand, and we learned that many of them had already visited our protected area.

A mandatory part of every conference are excursions to protected areas of the host country, giving participants the opportunity to visit many sites that preserve the natural or cultural values ​​of their area. We had the opportunity to visit the Trakai Historical National Park and the trail of the Varnikai Botanical and Zoological Reserve with its interesting bog habitat, lakes and forest with oak and birch trees.

The EUROPARC conference ended with awards and recognitions for the transboundary areas of Norway and Finland and the currently suspended Russia – Pasvik-Inari, the Julian Alps and the Triglav National Park (Italy and Slovenia) and Šumava and the Bavarian Forest National Park (Czech Republic and Germany). A special award, the Alfred Toepfer Medal, was awarded to Mr. Marià Martí Viudes who has dedicated his professional career to periurban areas and nature conservation in cities. With the end of the conference, another meeting of like-minded people in the conservation and restoration of nature with awareness of the challenges to come, ended. We remain hopeful that such a large community of people across Europe can really contribute a lot to the protection of all those natural values ​​that are important for our survival, because after all, nature and people are connected by an unbreakable bond.

For more information about the EUROPARC Federation click on the link https://www.europarc.org/.

Objava EUROPARC Conference „Nature for People, People for Nature“ in Lithuania pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

Geodiversity surrounds us and encompasses the non-living elements of nature, such as minerals, fossils, soils, and landscapes. To raise awareness of its significance, UNESCO declared 6 October as International Geodiversity Day in 2021.

This year’s theme, One Earth, Many Stories, highlights that every landscape, rock, and fossil tells a story about the origins of our natural environment. Records in rocks allow us to look into Earth’s past, fossil remains of plants and animals inform us about the evolution of life over millions of years, folds and faults reveal events in the Earth’s crust, and minerals astonish us with their regular geometric crystallisation, beautiful colours, and lustre. The geological substrate determines soil characteristics, which plant species will develop, where water will emerge, where streams and rivers will flow, where mountains will rise, and where caves and pits will form. Thus, geodiversity influences all living things. Our planet holds a record of 4 billion years of history, which can help us prepare for and respond to current and future threats such as climate change.

As the last systematic exploration of the Plitvice Lakes National Park area dates back to the 1960s, there is a clear need for a modern geological map based on lithostratigraphic principles, accompanied by digital content. Geological maps primarily enable national parks to better assess and manage natural resources and to visualise the pervasive connection between geology and other ecosystem components. Just before International Geodiversity Day, a new Basic Geological Map of the Plitvice Lakes National Park was published at a scale of 1:50 000. The project was carried out in cooperation with the Croatian Geological Institute in Zagreb, and the creation of the map took four years and involved more than 30 experts.

The national park is located within the Dinaric Massif and consists almost entirely of dolomite and limestone. Geological mapping identified 24 lithostratigraphic units, 15 formations, 3 members, and 6 Quaternary units bounded by unconformities, covering the period from the Late Triassic to the Upper Cretaceous (200 to 70 million years ago). A special section covers the recent geological past, the last 10 000 years, when the tufa barriers and most of the lake system were formed. The map provides valuable insight into the geological structure and development of the Plitvice Lakes National Park area and is a true collection of stories about the geodiversity of our Park.

Objava One Earth, many stories – International Geodiversity Day pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

Awards are granted by Green Destinations, a global non-profit organization established in the Netherlands, which has for many years been supporting sustainable development of destinations and tourism stakeholders, as well as encouraging good practices aimed at dealing with challenges posed by sustainable tourism. With over 600 destinations included in various Green Destinations programs and more than 160 certified and award-winning destinations in over 60 countries, the organization promotes the visibility of green destinations in the global tourism market.

THE PATH TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY

This award is an important step on the path toward sustainability, but it also serves as a key milestone for the public institution, confirming that we are heading in the right direction regarding nature conservation, management, social welfare, environment and climate, cultural heritage, business and communication. Our vision was clearly defined by the Green Destinations silver award in 2023, and this year’s golden award confirms that we are on the right path.

Given that the national park had previously been granted the Green Destinations award, after two years the renewal, or recertification, process followed, which started this year in April. On that occasion, the recertification expert team (Maja Vurnek, Zrinka Nenadić and Kristina Sigurnjak) collected documentation and described individual criteria that needed to be clarified, or harmonized, after the first audit. About 50 criteria were covered in the first phase, with another 34 criteria additionally clarified in 5 categories after the evaluator reviewed the documentation and visited the national park. Plitvice Lakes National Park was awarded the maximum score in the “Nature & Scenery” and “Culture & Tradition” categories.  This entire journey ultimately confirmed the attractiveness, quality, and investment in the sustainability of the largest and oldest national park in Croatia, allowing us to improve from the silver to the gold award!

GREEN DESTINATIONS CONFERENCE

 At the two-day conference, we had the opportunity to hear leading lecturers on the following topics:

• Destination management – toward successful sustainable tourism,
• Cultural heritage and tourism that strengthens and connects communities,
• Strategies, tools and activities for achieving climate resilience,
• Certificates (EcoLabel and regional cooperation in tourism),
• Innovations,
• Digital transformation,
• Decarbonization,
• Regenerative tourism through partnerships and social welfare.
  
  

The diversity of topics provided numerous opportunities for exploring sustainable solutions, exchanging best practices and connecting with various destinations from around the world (more than 300 participants), including Croatian representatives from tourist boards, counties, development agencies, Tourism Lab, and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

Objava Plitvice Lakes National Park honored with Golden Green Destinations Award pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

This semi-aquatic species is found across most of Europe. It is a carnivore and prefers fish, although it also eats crustaceans, birds, amphibians, and other smaller mammals it is able to catch. It inhabits all types of freshwater habitats, and is also found along the sea coast. Otters are very shy and elusive animals, making them hard to spot. It is easiest to spot them at dusk and dawn, when their activity peaks.

OIKON d.o.o. conducted the research on otters in the Park area between 2019 and 2022 in cooperation with the Park’s Professional Service Department. The research aimed to assess the size and condition of otter populations and individual otters, to determine which space they use and to record potential threats. Monitoring of otters is still ongoing.

The relatively large number of about 25 individuals (confirmed through DNA analysis of the collected samples) indicates that the Park area offers an ideal habitat for this species.

Objava The Otter in Plitvice Lakes National Park pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

Research and monitoring of the condition of bats in the Park has been conducted for many years. The Croatian Biospeleological Society is conducting “Research and Monitoring of Bats in Speleological and Surface Structures of Plitvice Lakes National Park” in cooperation with the Park’s Professional Service Department. Bats are most easily tracked while they are resting, in caves and other man-made structures, during the day or during winter hibernation.

The aim of monitoring is to determine the population status of individual bat species in Plitvice Lakes National Park, the status of speleological and surface structures they use for winter hibernation, maternity colonies or simply for rest during the warmer part of the year/day.

Bats are excellent indicators of the condition of the ecosystem they inhabit, and monitoring them is a valuable tool for monitoring the state of nature and the impact of climate change and human activity.

Objava Bats of Plitvice Lakes National Park pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".

It is a Natura 2000 target species for the area of Plitvice Lakes National Park. The Professional Service Department has been monitoring the condition and size of this species in the Park area for many years. It is believed that only one pair lives within the Park area.

Objava The Peregrine Falcon in Plitvice Lakes National Park pojavila se prvi puta na Nacionalni park "Plitvička jezera".