engleski

Explorations and documentation of the caves in function of their protection – examples from Cave Park Grabovača and Cerovačke caves, Croatia

Cave Park Grabovača is protected area near town Perušić in the Lika region. Public institution for management of the Cave Park was found in year 2006. Park includes area of 5, 95 km2 with nine caves (Samograd, Medina pećina, Amidžina pećina, Velika Kozarica, Mala Kozarica, Tabakuša, Slipca – Japaga, Pećina pod turskom kulom, Pećna kod Prvan sela). Some of these caves are special protected as geomorphological monuments. These caves have long exploration and tourist exploitation history but without systematic exploration and scientific documentation. Cerovačke caves are situated on the northern slope of Crnopac, the highest and the most karstified part of the south-eastern Velebit Mt. Cerovačke caves includes three speleological features: Upper Cerovačka (1290 m), Middle Cerovačka (390 m) and Lower Cerovačka cave (3200 m). They were discovered during the construction of railroad from Gračac to Knin in the year 1913. Upper and Lower Cerovačka cave are one of the known show cave site in Croatia. Cerovačke caves are important geomorphological, geological, palaeontological, archaeological and biospeleological site and they are included in the area of the Nature Park Velebit. These sites are among the most valuable speleological features in Croatian karst. Speleological clubs from Karlovac and Samobor, together with protected areas administrations were establish systematic exploration, monitoring and documentation projects with unitary data basis. The main goal of these projects is to improve the knowledge of these sites towards to their better protection. Also, it is very important to continue with speleological researches in order to discover new, so far unknown caves and channels. It is also necessary to continue with systematic scientific researches.

cave protection; exploration; cave documentation; Grabovača; Cerovačke caves; Croatia

nije evidentirano