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Croatia

Croatia has 97 Important Plant Areas, covering 964,655 hectares. The majority qualify through the presence of both threatened species and threatened habitats.

Bordered by Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Hungary, Croatia covers 56,500 km2 from the Adriatic coast in the south to the mountains of the north, plus 31,067 km2 of territorial waters. Covering four biogeographic zones, it is home to large numbers of Balkan endemic plants and a rich mosaic of plant communities.

The lowland areas to the east, bordered by the rivers Sava, Mura, Drava and Danube, contain marshes, ponds, wet meadows and pastures. Remnants of inland dunes and the most westerly elements of steppe flora and fauna are also present in this region, which is particularly important for birds.

Highland Croatia stretches parallel to the coast from the north-west to the south-east of the country. It includes a section of the Dinaric Alps, a ridge of karst or limestone landscape with caves, pits, rocks, ravines, karst valleys and natural lakes containing unique aquatic fauna and rising to 1831m at its highest peak. The major habitats here are the beech and fir forests and high mountain rock and scree with unique endemic and relict mountain flora, for example, Velebit degenia, a yellow-flowered mustard which grows only on the Velebit mountain. Also in this area are remnants of the most southerly European heaths.

Coastal and insular Croatia forms the most indented part of the Mediterranean coast, with 6116 km of coastline including 1,231 islands, islets and reefs. The major natural features are the coastal forests and their succession stages (evergreen holm oak, deciduous forests of pubescent oak), the stony limestone coast, the islands and the rivers, marshes and lakes of the Adriatic catchment area.

There are 97 Important Plant Areas in Croatia, covering 964,655 hectares. The majority qualify through the presence of both threatened species and threatened habitats.

Only 18 IPAs in Croatia are either fully or partly protected at national level. Land abandonment is the greatest threat to Croatia’s IPAs, affecting 62% of sites, so maintaining rural land management practices will be a necessity if Croatia’s plant diversity is to be secured.

Three quarters of IPAs are used for tourism and recreation activities. Development threatens 44% of sites and 33% are threatened by development specifically associated with tourism: coastal and island IPAs are especially vulnerable.

Fact-sheets on the Croatian IPAs are available on the IPA Online Database.

Coordinating organisation:

• Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb

Contacts:

• Professor Toni Nikolić