engleski

Polluted caves, the most endangered component of Croatian geoheritage

Caves in Croatia are protected by Nature protection law and enjoy formal state protection. A part of the already investigated caves enjoy several main types of legal protection. Caves can be individually protected as Nature monuments (geological-geographical, paleontological, geomorphological, hydrological). They can be protected as parts of the bigger protected areas (National parks, Nature parks, Significant landscapes etc.), Geoparks or protected as Natura 2000 sites. The last major campaign of declaring caves as protected geosites took place in the late 1960s. In 21st century, Croatia protected only one cave as geoheritage site. Besides few initiatives from scientists and professional geologists and geomorphologists organizations, Croatian nature protection system did not yet provide a system for geodiversity and geoheritage management and protection based on clear criteria for inventory and evaluation, and there are no signs of its creation in the near future. In the case of caves as especially fragile environments, the lack of clear policies and proper management resulted in problems like pollution and degradation. Around 3400 caves have been registered in the formal Croatian cave cadastre, although the real number is estimated to be closer to 10000. Among these, there are more than 800 polluted caves across Croatia, as registered by the Clean underground project of the Zagreb Speleological Union. Despite the fact that all caves are protected by law and the fact that there is a cadastre of polluted caves, the authorities did not take any action, yet everything was left to the volunteer activities of the speleological community gathered around Clean Underground initiative. In this work, we address the spatial distribution of polluted caves, with the aim to elucidate the sites of highest pollution spatial density and determine areas in biggest need of protection. We also wish to uncover prominent social factors that enable or facilitate waste disposal into the karst underground. Vast numbers of polluted sites can easily overwhelm local cave remediation capacities, so it is crucial to build a remediation priority list, a long-term strategy that will enable the rehabilitation known sites and prevent further pollution. We call for a methodical revalorisation of underground geoheritage sites that should take into account key protection and management issues such as recognition and prevention of cave pollution.

Polluted caves, Geoheritage

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