engleski

From National Case of Poor Management to Sustainable Tourism Planning: The Plitvice Lakes National Park Case Study

Croatia’s most famous National Park Plitvice Lakes has also become a national case of poor management during past three decades due to environment pressure which is result of approximately one and a half million visitors each year. While microorganisms in lakes and waterfalls, known as the sedra, make Plitvice Lakes peculiar, such a natural resource was treated inappropriately, although it contributes to the national budget more than any other protected area. In this context, the answers to the following questions should be found. First, is it a national failure to protect the environment or local arbitrariness and misuse, or perhaps it is causal processes? Second, is economic elite responsible for "apartmanization", or is it a result of uncontrolled but equally grasping actions of local and national potentates? Third, are these processes still ongoing and finally, do Plitvice Lakes as park, municipality and/or local community has an alternative to mass tourism? We will try to answer these questions considering main assumption that all mentioned problems and connected processes led to the critical situation where UNESCO was considering to classify Plitvice Lakes as endangered heritage site. Thus, the problem should be solved in best interest of national, regional, and especially local government and community whose basic life conditions and economic sustainability are threatened by possibility of ecological disaster. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate the processes that led to the current state of the Plitvice Lakes, using desk method, statistic data analysis and semi- structured interviews with local and regional development actors. The discussion is based on the "Plitvice paradox": the lakes are a place that 19th century cartographers called "The Devil's Garden" for the wild and preserved landscape, a place where young enthusiasts at the beginning of the 21st century create a brand of "Fall in Love" perfume and a place where wastewater is mixed with the completely clean one. During 2018. new directorate of the Park started a process which will try to create sustainable management of tourism. Thus, the end of the discussion, as open conclusion will present insight in these sustainable possibilities.

devastation ; natural resources ; Plitvice Lakes ; protection ; sustainable tourism

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