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Natural heritage

Natural heritage

Priceless gifts of nature

Nature is a priceless treasure that surrounds us. We pass down nature as heritage from generation to generation. Will it remain unspoiled for our descendants? We all must take care to protect it!

 

Nature creates a new miracle for us every day. Nocturnal animals retreat to their homes as the first morning sun rays appear, while diurnal creatures peek out into the daylight. Flowers open their blossoms in the morning, and bees diligently gather pollen. Water flows tirelessly in the nearby stream. Mountain peaks sparkle in the light. Day and night alternate. Day after day… for millions and millions of years.

In the pre-industrial era, humans had a minimal impact on nature. With development, people began to extract and deplete natural resources- water, soil, and wood- more quickly and intensively.

 

With their way of life, humans inevitably began to interfere with nature.
Efforts emerged to preserve and protect the environment, natural resources, and all forms of life.
Natural heritage is the wealth of nature- both living and non-living nature.

 

These are rare, valuable, or notable natural phenomena, as well as other worthy features and components of nature, natural areas, ecosystems, landscapes, and shaped nature. This includes geological features, minerals and fossils along with their deposits, karst formations, caves, gorges, glaciers, springs, waterfalls, rapids, lakes, marshes, streams, rivers, coastal areas, plant and animal species, habitats, ecosystems, landscapes, and shaped nature...

Some areas or specific parts are protected due to their uniqueness, and therefore we take special care to conserve them.

With efforts to preserve nature, legally defined measures and guidelines for nature conservation have also emerged. Instead of the term "natural heritage," the Slovenian legislation introduced a new term: "natural value."

 

And what is it that is worth protecting? What is rare, valuable, and the most beautiful?

When evaluating criteria, we consider exceptionalism, typicality, complex interconnections, preservation status, rarity, ecosystem significance, testimonial importance, and/or scientific-research importance.

Slovenia is a country full of natural treasures. Natural values encompass all the natural heritage within our country's borders.

The Nature Conservation Atlas of Slovenia records 17.429 natural values.

For example, the stone face of Ajdovska Deklica is recorded as an anthropomorphic rock formation in the Prisojnik wall (Prisank), Lake Bohinj is the largest permanent natural lake in Slovenia, the habitat of daffodils on the meadows and pastures of the southern slopes of Golica is a natural value, and Vrata is a characteristic glacially shaped alpine valley.

You can find many descriptions of natural values in the Triglav Treasury. Just browse through the pages a bit!

Natural values, or natural heritage, can be distinguished based on their characteristics. We differentiate between:

  1. Geological natural values, fossils, and minerals
  2. Geomorphological surface and underground natural values
  3. Hydrological natural values
  4. Zoological natural values
  5. Botanical natural values
  6. Ecosystem natural values
  7. Tree natural values
  8. Shaped natural values
  9. Landscape values

 

DO YOU KNOW?

  1. Natural values are marked with a ribbon that has six loops. Three loops represent the non-living part of nature (water, earth, air), while the other three loops represent the living part of nature (plants, animals, and humans).

  2. On the website of the Nature Conservation Atlas you can find an interactive geographic information system that displays data about important nature conservation areas in Slovenia.

  3. Instead of the term "natural heritage," the Slovenian legislation introduced a new term, "natural value," in 1999.