The Bioportal, prepared by the State Institute for Nature Protection, can be accessed free of charge at www.iszp.hr. The project was financed with around HRK 900,000 from the "EU Natura 2000 Integration Project".
"This is the first time that we have complete information about biological diversity and nature protection in Croatia in one place," Zmajlovic said, underscoring that the Bioportal was user friendly and could be useful to a wide range of users, from investors to scientists and the public in general.
Citizens for instance can look up and see what habitats and protected species can be found en route during their travels.
The Bioportal provides information about all Croatian protected areas, plant and animal species and habitats and their location.
The main theme of this year's Biodiversity Day is Biodiversity for Sustainable Development, and Croatia, which has one of the most diverse biologies of all European Union countries, has to preserve that diversity while at the same time facilitating development, Zmajlovic underscored.
"Sustainable development is important for Croatia, which means that we should intelligently exploit natural resources in order to allow future generations to enjoy nature's wealth," he said.
Croatia has 19 national parks and nature parks and virtually 30 percent of its territory is located in the European Natura 2000 ecological network. It features around 40,000 wild species.