Laws and regulations

The base line regulation governing speleological objects protection in Republic of Croatia is the Nature Protection Act.

According the Law speleological objects means naturally shaped underground cavities more than 5 meters in length that can be accessed by man while the dimensions of the entrance therein are smaller than the depth or length of the object.

All speleological objects are property of the Republic of Croatia and with submarine caves consists part of National ecological network.

Discovery of any speleological object or part thereof shall be notified to the Ministry of Culture, Directorate for Nature Protection within 15 days.

Prior to performing any activity in a speleological object (e.g. scuba diving, taking photographs, recording movies…) carrying out scientific and technical research it is necessary to secure permits from the Ministry.

It is prohibited to damage, destroy and take away speleothems, living organisms from speleological objects, fossil, archeological and other findings as well as to alter habitat conditions within the object, its above-ground and immediate proximity.

Supervision over performing authorized activities and operations in speleological objects do nature protection inspectors. Supervision in protected areas among inspectors does the supervisors of the public entity administering protected area. All underground fauna including bats are strictly protected. Red list underground fauna with categories of threat is available. The Red Book of underground fauna is under procedure.

Speleological objects are considered as threatened habitat and it is necessary to enforce conservation measures.

The National Strategy and Action Plan for the Protection of Biological and Landscape Diversity define the basic strategic and action plan for protected underground habitat and underground fauna.

All legal documents can be found on Ministry of Culture and State institute for Nature protection web pages.