Nature protection and biodiversity - Why care? (Slovenia)

SOER 2010 Common environmental theme (Deprecated)

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According to estimates, approximately 60 % of the environment is in a natural or semi-natural state, including landscapes and areas that were managed in a traditional way in the past and where activities were abandoned a long time ago.

Topic: Nature and biodiversity

more info Organisation name Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia Reporting country Slovenia Organisation website Organisation website Contact link Contact link Last updated 03 Jan 2011 Content license CC By 2.5 Content provider

Published: 20 May 2010 Modified: 11 May 2020 Feed synced: 03 Jan 2011 original

Key message

Slovenia is characterised by extremely diverse and relatively well preserved nature. The relatively small territory has great biodiversity which can be attributed mainly to the convergence of various types of climate, geologic features and a considerable elevation range and also to largely traditional agricultural land use.

Slovenia is among the regions with above-average biodiversity with 26 000 known and an estimated total of 45 000-120 000 species. Of these, 800 animal and 66 plant species are endemic. Especially characteristic are forests, subterranean and water ecosystems, wetlands, the sea, alpine and mountainous areas, and dry grasslands. Slovenia covers less than 0.004 % of the Earth's total surface area and 0.014 % of its total land area. However, more than 1 % of all known species of all living organisms and more than 2 % of all terrestrial species live in Slovenia. Such a large number in such a small area ranks the country among the naturally richest areas of Europe and even of the world.

On a global scale, Slovenia boasts one of the largest subterranean biodiversities in the world (NB04). Most of the exclusively subterranean species are endemic. Water fauna with 200 species is the richest in global terms, while terrestrial fauna with 150 species is perhaps only surpassed by southern parts of the Dinaric karst. Five Slovenian cave systems are listed among the 20 richest in the world. The Postojna-Planina cave system with 50 aquatic species and 35 terrestrial species is by far the richest. The Cave Protection Act protects the subterranean environment as a whole. Nevertheless, it is threatened by pollution that mostly originates from the surface.

In 1999, Slovenia adopted the Nature Conservation Act (ZON) which lays down biodiversity conservation measures regulating the protection of wildlife species, including their genetic material, habitats and ecosystems, enabling the sustainable use of biodiversity components and ensuring the preservation of natural balance. ZON also regulates the protection of valuable natural features – natural heritage – and is based on the realisation that, for practical reasons, as we cannot protect the whole of nature, we should rather focus on those parts of nature deemed as valuable, using social awareness and, ultimately, legal measures.

In the Republic of Slovenia, goals and measures in the field of nature conservation are defined by the Nature Protection National Programme which is a component of the National Environmental Action Plan for the period 2005-2012 (NPVO). The goals and measures are:

preservation of a high level of biodiversity and halting biodiversity loss by 2010;
maintaining or achieving a favourable state of threatened species and habitat types;
protection and preservation of the characteristics that resulted in parts of nature being declared valuable natural features.