Integrating plans for a fractured landscape: Velebit, Croatia

Although only 1757m high, Velebit, Croatia's longest and largest mountain, is nonetheless a powerful landmark famous for its beauty and diversity. This is a deeply divided karst landscape of bare limestone crags interspersed with forested valleys and depressions, and honeycombed with caves, springs and rivers such as the Lika which run at least partially underground.

The landscape still holds surprises: Lukina jama, now one of the deepest known caves in the world, was only discovered and explored in the 1990s. An expedition to establish the cave's depth also uncovered a previously unknown species of leech. The rugged terrain and complex drainage systems lend themselves to high endemism as species develop in relative isolation.

Velebit rises from the Adriatic coast where beech forests mix with oak and elm on the slopes; between the high peaks, juniper and pine grow in protected valleys; beech forests return as the land slopes inland.

Crucial habitat for many plant and animal species
Blossoms of rare and endemic gentians, hellebores, lilies, bell-flowers, rock-cress and other plants brighten the scattered meadows and heaths. Predators such as wolves, brown bears, lynx, wildcats, eagles, vultures and owls, which have disappeared from much of their former European range, still hunt here.

Part of UNESCO's biosphere reserve program
Caught in the struggles of the Bulgarian, Byzantine and Austro-Hungarian empires and the more recent dramas of the Yugoslavian republic and its unravelling, this is an area with a turbulent human history; however, the history includes an appreciation of Velebit's wild beauty as well as measures to safeguard it. The area has been part of UNESCO's biosphere reserve program since 1978.

WWF - working with the government and other NGOs
In 2001, the local NGO Zelena Akcija (ZA) and WWF obtained the formal commitment of the Croatian government to the conservation of the natural heritage of the Velebit range, a commitment celebrated as a WWF Gift To The Earth. As part of the Velebit Green Belt Project, ZA have stopped a cement factory inside the belt and achieved the re-routing of a Zabreg-Split highway that would have cut through the Velebit forest and reduced its integrity. 

Focussing on the Lika River basin
Current activities focus on the Lika River basin, especially on developing an integrated management plan to preserve and restore river ecosystems while cooperatively sharing its social and economic benefits. A recent survey of the river found scientific evidence for the first time of Eurasian otters.

Once widespread from the British Isles to North Africa and across Europe and Asia, these lively, playful animals need riparian habitats and a substantial supply of fish, crustaceans, amphibians and other aquatic prey. The species is now extinct throughout much of its former range; the discovery of otters in the relatively undisturbed Lika headwaters is a hopeful sign for the health and future of this river basin.