AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS IMPRESSED BY PLITVICE LAKES

PLITVICE LAKES, Oct 1 (Hina) - We are impressed by what we have seen in Croatia's national parks, particularly by the welcome offered to visitors in the Plitvice Lakes national park, said U.S experts at a news conference on Saturday. Those experts from US national parks, who are on a visit to Croatia, have come to support, on behalf of their Administration, a project called "The Protection of Karst Ecological Systems", said the US National Parks' head and President Bill Clinton's advisor on environment, Ms. Sherer Talbot. An advisor in the World Bank, Anamarija Frankic, said that by the end of this year a draft project on the protection of the Karst areas of Gorski Kotar and Lika (central Croatia) would be presented to World Bank officials. The Bank is to earmark between five and six million dollars for the preservation of national parks - Paklenica (two deep canyons on southern slopes of Mt. Velebit with 300-400m-high cliffs above them), Risnjak (the most densely-forested part of Gorski Kotar), Plitvice Lakes (a group of a score lakes connected with water cascading down crystalline calcium carbonate barriers and 80 hectares of almost pristine virgin forest) - and the natural park Velebit. According to the project, local residents who live inside the parks will be encouraged to develop the rural tourism, produce healthy food and maintain tradition and local customs. US experts, who can offer technical assistance in these efforts, told reporters that 55 American national parks, financed by budgetary means, register $10 billion of the income from visits and services to holiday-makers. (hina) ms