CROATIA TO GET FIVE MILLION DOLLARS TO PROTECT ITS KARST REGION

ZAGREB, July 16 (Hina) - Croatia is likely to receive about five million dollars for the protection of its Karst ecological systems in the mid-2001, Croatian Environmental Protection Minister Bozo Kovacevic has announced recently. The means, which Croatia will get from the UN working body GEF ("Global Environment Facility"), will be given via the World Bank. The implementation of the entire programme for the protection of Croatian Karst ecological system will take five years, Minister Kovacevic said last Tuesday at an expert workshop organised to help prepare a project for this purpose. The minister described the Karst ecological system in the country as the most important natural resources in Croatia, encompassing Lika, Gorski Kotar (central Croatia), four national parks and the natural park Mount Velebit. Kovacevic expressed satisfaction with the fact that this project had entered a stage when it was being near completion. Its aim is to preserve the natural heritage and include it in a conception of the viable ecological progress of Croatia, the minister added. Besides, through the implementation of the project, the Environmental Protection and Zoning Ministry, in cooperation with other ministries, is trying to ensure better conditions of living and develop the resources in the areas in question. The project is being drafted on the grounds of a document entitled "A National Strategy and Action Plan for the Protection of Biological and Landscape Diversities," which the Croatian national parliament adopted in the end of 1999. According to the document, the Sabor viewed the Karst areas as a region with the exceptional value not only in Europe but also in the world. The elaboration of the aforementioned project should be completed by the end of this year and a Croatian company PAP/RAC was given the task to draft it, along with international experts of the World Bank and a Canadian firm, Blackstone. (hina) ms