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The Origins and Developmental Course of Plitvice Lakes National Park: From “The Devil’s Garden” to the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Register

Nestled in the heart of Europe, the 16 exquisitely beautiful Plitvice Lakes, the centrepiece of the eponymous National Park (Croatia), draw attention from the very beginning, from the first travertine stone to today’s tourist visits. This paper is meant to be a contribution to a better understanding of the historical processes that occurred during the time before the establishment of the national park and the time surrounding its establishment. The authors endeavoured to answer the following questions: at whose initiative was the area placed under protection, and which interest groups strived to commercialize the Plitvice Lakes? This paper also deals with overriding social and cultural circumstances and emphasizes the new scientific knowledge which served as the sine qua non for the institutional protection of the Plitvice Lakes. The paper also dealt with the legal framework, based on the American and Swiss models, which set the foundation for the declaration of the Plitvice Lakes a national park on 9 April 1949. The period prior to World War II was indeed a period marked by rising awareness of both protection and new economic opportunities pertaining to increased human activity in and around the Plitvice Lakes. The development of new branches of tourism as a result of new economic processes marked a period of increasing recognition of the Plitvice Lakes as a tourist destination and an area with an exceptional natural environment. Tragic events of the Second World War (1941- 1945) had a negative impact on the population and the tourism infrastructure of the Plitvice Lakes. Despite the new and insecure political climate, the communist leadership acknowledged previous efforts to safeguard the natural environment of the Plitvice Lakes, therefore declared the national park in 1949. The basic purpose of this paper is to explain and justify the necessity of achieving the long-standing aspiration to declare and then to preserve the Plitvice Lakes National Park. This is why this paper ends with a short summary on the protection of the National Park by means of a contemporary integral sustainability concept.

Plitvice Lakes ; tourism development ; Ivo Pevalek, environmental history ;

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