engleski

Fifty Years of Nature Protection in Međimurje County

The plane tree in Nedelišće is the first piece of nature to have been protected in Međimurje, proclaimed to be protected in February, 1963. The foundations for the first official environmental protection were laid by the 1960 Environmental Protection Act. This proclamation has been part of general trends of proclaiming protected areas in Croatia in the past fifty years. The timing and the way of proclaiming protected areas in Međimurje County followed the pattern of proclaiming protected areas in other parts of The Republic of Croatia. The early period of the history of proclaiming protected areas was characterised by a large number of small protected areas. This trend changed over time towards proclaiming a smaller number of larger protected areas. In the same way, Međimurje County proclaimed the area by the Mura River protected in 2001, and ten years later, The Government of the Republic of Croatia proclaimed the areas by the Mura and the Drava Rivers a regional park Mura-Drava. The population density of the county, constant aspirations for economic growth, and a global trend of diminishing biological and landscape diversity require the application of the concept of protection that will take into consideration the singularities and differences within each area. We should aspire for the most favourable state of nature and the components of the environment, but this must not remain only a desire of an individual or a group of people. On the contrary, it is an unavoidable scenario if we want to survive in the future.

Protected areas, biological and landscape diversity

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