Representatives of Vjetrenica Cave, the Herzegovinian gem known for its highest level of biodiversity in Europe, started a process of nominating this natural heritage for UNESCO’s World Heritage list, confirmed to Fena the Director of the Public Company Vjetrenica Ana Soldo.
She explained that they already applied with the Ministry of Civil Affairs of B&H for funds for the preparation of documents that are required for nomination.
This company has already made two important documents for the process, a protected area management plan to protect and study the cave and a study for the protection of Vjetrenica and a part of Popovo Field, which covers a large area, and realized through grants from various funds.
Soldo underlined that Vjetrenica would be nominated exclusively as a natural speleological object. There was also the idea for Vjetrenica to be nominated as a cultural and natural area, with greater coverage of the surrounding areas and the entire village of Zavala, but the idea was dropped.
She said that this year they had 95.000 BAM at their disposal, which has still not yet been paid. These funds will be directed to the completion of a project for lighting in part of the tourist paths inside the cave. Also, they are waiting for funds from municipality Ravno for the completion of designing the entrance to the cave of around 150 meters, and walkways, even though a large part has been completed.
‘’UNESCO Sarajevo office helped us rebuild the old administration building close to the entrance of the cave, and a space was created for the opening of a biospeleological museum. Now it is necessary to find funds so that we could maintain it’’, said Soldo.
There is also ongoing research at Vjetrenia by experts from various areas, and results from the research are published in professional journals.
(Source: klix.ba)
