With the project "Creating the National Cadastre of Cave Objects", Montenegro will for the first time receive a list of caves and pits on its territory, with detailed information on their characteristics and possibilities of exploitation.
For now, as the director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Ervin Spahić, said, a database of 1.600 objects has been created, which will be constantly updated.
"So far, eight speleological objects, of which seven are caves, have been protected and declared natural monuments. That was our legal obligation, and the project was financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), under the coordination of the Center for Sustainable Development (UNDP)," said Spahić.
Project coordinator Duško Mrdak stated that among the 1.600 listed objects, there are twenty caves that are longer than one kilometer and eight objects that are deeper than 500 meters.
"Recently, we are also the 'club of a thousand', because we have a 1.167-meter-deep pit on our territory - the Iron pit on Maganik. We have a disproportionately represented regional research. If all the facilities on Durmitor were investigated, it would certainly be a third of the total data, and if Lovćen were added, it would be much more", said Mrdak.
He explained that two-thirds of the territory of Montenegro is covered with limestone mass.
"A good part of that territory is sufficiently soaked by atmospheric precipitation, which caused a good development of the relief. Research began with foreigners, even during the Austro-Hungarian occupation. The second period of research took place during the development of energy, when artificial lakes were built in the Nikšić field. In recent times, those researches were carried out by individuals, more out of love, without any benefit or help," said Mrdak.
He cited issuing permits for exploring caves and pits as a major problem.
"It often happens that speleologists from abroad explore in Montenegro, without asking permission from the Agency and without leaving us precious data. "For the last 10 years, the Agency has issued the same number of permits for research, and we all know that much more is being researched," said Mrdak.
The manager of the Center for Sustainable Development, Jelena Janjušević, said that the organization, among other things, implements projects to increase the income of protected areas through the development and increase of the potential of adventure tourism.
"When it comes to Montenegro, it is clear that there is a huge potential, but the level of utilization of that potential is very low. Of course, there are some objects that should not be open to visitors, but for tourism valorization, one of the key conditions is the collection of information, characteristics and value of speleological objects", said Janjušević.
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