National Ecological Network

The ecological network is a system of connected or spatially close ecologically important areas. With their balanced biogeographical distribution, they significantly contribute to conserving the natural balance and biodiversity that make up the ecologically important areas in the Republic of Croatia and the ecologically important areas of the European Union NATURA 2000 network that are important for conserving threatened wild taxa and habitat types.

Establishment of an ecological network in Croatia is prescribed under the Nature Protection Act.

In 2002, implementation of the LIFE III project CRO-NEN began, and its result was the creation of the proposed national ecological network, as the backbone for drafting the regulation on proclamation of the National Ecological Network. In 2007, the State Institute for Nature Protection developed the expert base proposal for the Regulation on the proclamation of the ecological network (OG 109/07) that was adopted in October 2007. Pursuant to the NATURA 2000 network of the European Union, the area of the ecological network in Croatia is divided into internationally important areas for birds and areas important for other wild taxa and habitat types. For each area, the conservation objectives are outlined, i.e. a list of species and habitat types given for which the areas was included in the ecological network and for which the impact of any interventions in the area must be considered during any acceptability assessments of plans, programmes and interventions for the ecological network. Furthermore, guidelines for protection measures are given for each area of the ecological network and apply to all natural and legal persons using natural assets, or carrying out works and interventions in the areas of the ecological network.
Croatia's National Ecological Network covers 47% of the terrestrial land area and 39% of the marine territory, in addition to two corridors: the sea turtle corridor and the Palagruža-Lastovo-Pelješac corridor (important for bird migrations).

An interactive map of the National Ecological Network can be viewed HERE (viewing the map requires installation of Java Runtime Environment).