Public Institution for the Management of Geomorphologic Monuments of Nature "Cave Park Grabovača"

The cave park is managed by the Public Institution for the Management of Geomorphological Monuments of Nature “Cave park Grabovača”. Grabovača is the elevation of the mid –Velebit, located at 770 m above sea level near the karst basin of the river Lika. From there, you can seen wide panorama of the karst plateu with Lika River canyon, but as well the historical old town Perušić. The area of the park is characterized by a great diversity of ecosystems and habitats, and a large number of speleological objects in a small area – 9 speleological objects.Its many underground karst forms make up a qurter of the total number of protected cave facilities in Croatia. The Public Institution is established in 2006 with activities of protection, mainteance, utilization and promoting of geomorphological monuments of nature in the area of Perušić. Currently PI has four employees – director of the PI, scientific and research assistant – geographer – geoecologist, supervisor and economist. Since establishement, PI conducted many project related to speleological, biospeleological, geological, geomorphological and biological research. In the year, 2012. PI started with the process of enlargement of the park boundaries (from 595,5ha to 5.500ha) and re-categorization in the category of the regional park. In addition, PI is conducting awareness raising actions involving local citizens and volunteers from all over Europe. The main aim of the PI is that nature conservation must be integral: based on the protection of species and their habitats, as well as monitoring and controlling of the processes and activities that threaten the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.PI work a lot on education and has designed program of ecological-educational workshops for pupils. The basic idea of all workshop`s is to acquaint children with the importance of preserving nature for future generations - exploring the concept of sustainable development. In each workshop, special attention is paid to the features of karst topography, environmental conditions and problems in karst areas. Most of the visitors in the park are children and pupils but during the summer seasons park is visited by many foreign tourists.