Triglav National Park celebrates 100 years

Today, the Triglav National Park (TNP) spans nearly 84,000 hectares across the majority of the Julian Alps, and it accounts for some 4% of Slovenia's territory, but it started out much smaller.

Called the Alpine Conservation Park, TNP's predecessor encompassed only 1,400 hectares in the Triglav Lakes Valley when it was first established in 1924. The idea dates back even further, to 1906, when it was first proposed by the seismologist and natural scientist Albin Belar, according to TNP's website.

The Triglav National Park was established in 1961, expanding only slightly over the territory of its predecessor to a total of 2,000 hectares. Two decades later it was expanded to its near-current size, with a smaller expansion following in 2010.

Moreover, in 2003, the park and a wide belt around it were declared a UNESCO Julian Alps Biosphere Reserve. Earlier this year, the biosphere reserve became a part of the UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, which also includes the Italian Julian Prealps Biosphere Reserve.

Presenting the park's beginnings at the conference in Bled today, biologist and conservationist Peter Skoberne said that the idea for the park gradually gained social significance, ultimately becoming the symbol of Slovenia's natural environment.

Skoberne sees the park developing through cooperation of all stakeholders, including the locals living in the park. "I see a lot of potential in this cooperation," he said, adding that the park as an institution was growing stronger in working together with the locals.

He believes that "we must enter the park as mindful and humble visitors and the locals must remember the practices of their forefathers' sustainable lives. This does not mean that we have to regress 200 years, it means incorporating the positive experiences from the past into today's lifestyles."

"There is only one rule: do not use the big spoon, meaning one must be humble. We need to set boundaries and respect them," said Skoberne.

Meanwhile, the management of the TNP is considering visitor capacity, as the number of visitors has skyrocketed over the past decades to the point of causing dissatisfaction among the visitors and the locals.

The high turnout is already affecting the natural environment, above all the high-altitude lakes and underground water, and is causing significant erosion on the most popular destinations and trails, according to Aleš Zdešar, who is in charge of spatial planning at the TNP.

Efforts are underway to divert the visitors to less crowded destinations. "It does not mean that we do not want visitors - natural parks are meant to be visited and enjoyed."

The park management would like to to adapt visitor flows in order to preserve pristine nature, while still seeing decent turnout, but within bounds that do not undermine the locals' quality of life.

Meanwhile, Saša Roškar of the Kranj Cultural Heritage Protection Institute told the conference that more attention would have to be paid in the future to protecting the cultural heritage in the park.

After all, the park was established not just to protect natural heritage, but also cultural heritage, such as high-altitude pastures, agricultural landscape and mountaineering, said Roškar.

Last week, an exhibition opened at the Bled TNP information centre, dedicated to Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, the pioneer of natural history in Slovenia.

The exhibition was put together by the Natural History Museum last year to mark the 300th anniversary of Scopoli's birth and will run until 15 December.