The Notranjska Regional Park is happy to announce it has joined the #UnitedforBiodiversity Coalition! We are proud to be part of a growing list of international organizations that work together to support the protection of global biodiversity! It is the European Commission’s global association “United for Biodiversity”, which was established last year, and its commitments will be further strengthened at this year’s autumn session of the CoP 15 Convention on Biological Diversity. It will be even more important than the Paris Agreement, which recognized the seriousness of the climate crisis.
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries welcomed the association, which invites all the world’s natural parks, aquariums, botanical gardens, zoos, museums and research centers: »All species, from bacteria to mammals, plants to insects, are pieces of the big puzzle of life. They are all connected and depend on each other. Yet one species, our species, is now responsible for the climate crisis and the nature crisis, causing massive biodiversity loss. By destroying Earth ecosystems, we humans are jeopardizing our food, our health, our economy and our own future.
World botanic gardens, zoos, parks, museums, research centers and aquariums show us what we need to protect and restore on this planet. We urgently need to take action, at all levels, from local to global, otherwise, our only chance of seeing nature is in these institutions.That would be a failure of humankind. It is time for us to reconnect with nature.«
The Comissioner`s heartbreaking words are not an exaggeration, but our reality. If ever, now is the last chance for human to take action as one of the pieces in the biodiversity puzzle by his actions on planet Earth, rather than as a sublime force to which everything that grows and breathes is subordinated. Our park, also as part of the association, will continue to raise awareness of the current crisis in which human has plunged nature with each of his activities and education. We have to emphasize that our park already is a model example of biodiversity conservation, and the renaturation of watercourses, which it carries out, stand out internationally.
Of all the natural parks in Slovenia, the Notranjska regional park, manages by far the largest area of moist and wet meadows. In this way, it makes an important contribution to the conservation of endangered species of meadows and wetlands. The diversity of plants and animals, many of which are endangered and rare, is remarkable here. Almost 280 different species of birds have been spotted in our park so far, which is half of all species living in Europe!
A special species of heron, Eurasian Bittern, in the whole Slovenia only nests on Lake Cerknica. This mysterious bird is extremely threatened by the loss of reeds around the world, which are changing due to the drying up and changing of the traditional reed harvesting regime and due to the burden of water with excessive intake of mineral fertilizers and pollution of waters with toxic substances. Disturbances during nesting can also have fatal consequences for her. Through careful land management, the park maintains suitable habitats for the drum, and as part of the LIFE Stržen project, it is arranging a quiet zone for it.
Lake Cerknica is one of the five areas where pilot monitoring of wild bees in Slovenia began exactly one year ago. The first results prove that the area stands out for its large population of bumblebees. These are accounted for almost half of all wild bees recorded last year. This is two to four times as much as in the other studied areas. One of the possible explanations for the high proportion of bumblebees at Lake Cerknica is good nutritional conditions throughout the season. Namely, bumblebees live in families that need food from spring to autumn for successful development, longer than most other wild bees.
At the last traditional census of corncrakes (June 2020), we counted as much as 103 corncrakes on Lake Cerknica. Lake Cerknica is currently the best area for corncrakes in the country. This bird`s population on Lake Cerknica is stable or even growing slightly, while elsewhere in Slovenia ornitologists worry about their decline. From 1999 until today, its population in Slovenia has halved! Until 2016, the Ljubljana Marshes was considered the best area for corncrakes, but their number is decreasing there. The good condition of the corncrake population on Lake Cerknica is connected with the absence of the effects of intensive agriculture and with the good nature protection part of the Notranjska Regional Park.
We are pleased to be connected, through the Biodiversity Association, with all institutions and organizations that share with us a committed concern for the conservation of biodiversity. By joining forces and raising the awareness of the people on , we will be able to stop the climate crisis and the threats to our ecosystems. Also, with advice to individuals on how we contribute to nature conservation with our daily lives.
It is time to stand together and put biodiversity on top of the world leader`s agenda!
#UnitedforBiodiversity #ZdruženiZaBiotskoPestrost #Za Naravo #SmoDelRešitve #CoP15 #LIFE #LIFE_Stržen
