In addition to projects aimed at strengthening tourism capacities, NP "Biogradska gora" will also work on positioning the area as a "kind of scientific laboratory".
This is what the new director Rajko Golubović told "Vijesta", explaining that the goals will also be defined in the Five-Year Management Plan. He announced that the document will be completed by the end of August, and it should contain "obligations, activities, necessary strategic investments...".
"We want to position the Biograd rainforest as a kind of scientific laboratory, which will gather young as well as proven scientists. Organization of scientific gatherings, cooperation with domestic and foreign scientific institutions, organization of infrastructure that will enable them to continue their stay and research... - these are some of our goals. This year, we are also planning to organize a multidisciplinary scientific meeting 'Biograd's message', or 'Biograd's rainforest story'. We believe that it is necessary to keep the attention of the scientific community and for scientists to be present in NP again, as before," says Golubović.
He said, "finally, we need to start solving the problem of water draining from Lake Biograd". This, he points out, is a big job that cannot be completed in a year or two.
"The loss of water in the lake is a long-standing problem, and we hope to solve it. But that should be preceded by a serious expert story, in several stages. Of course, it also takes time".
Golubović says that recently the area of the National Park is even more interesting due to the appearance of a brown bear, which the supervisors named Marko.
According to Golubović, the presence of a brown bear in the rainforest reserve "is an indicator of a high degree of nature conservation".
The marking of bears and their monitoring was carried out as part of the project "Bear Observation in the Biogradska Gora National Park", which is carried out with the Dinarid Parks - the network of protected areas of the Dinarid and WWF Adria, under the auspices of the Swedish development agency SIDA.
In October 2017, a bear was marked for the first time in Montenegro. The specimen that was caught with the expert team of the Faculty of Biology from Belgrade was named Nikola and weighed 355 kilograms.
Although the summer tourist season in the NP started with a very small number of guests, a visit to the rainforest at the end of May and beginning of June, according to Golubović, is encouraging.
"We are really looking forward to the tourist summer with optimism. Already at the beginning of June, we are in 'full operation'. It is realistic to expect that for now our guests are local, but from the beginning of next month we hope to have foreign tourists as well. According to statistics from the past two years, which were record-breaking in terms of visits, foreign tourists make up more than 70 percent of the total number of guests," he said.
According to Golubović, all preparations for the summer tourist season were completed on time.
The offer, as a novelty, also includes a trolley that will transport visitors from the King's wheel to the lake, which made it possible to move vehicles from the National Park itself to a significant extent. The provision of vehicles was made possible last year through the project "Development of low-carbon tourism in Montenegro".
Planned and construction
Golubović assessed that the Biogard rainforest should improve the tourist offer, but at the same time preserve sustainability, strengthening capacities. The plan, he explains, is "to apply for several strategic investments that will contribute to this".
"First of all, the park's water supply needs to be solved. We are also planning to adapt the hatchery, which would provide sufficient quantities for stocking the lake. An adequate way should be found to provide a certain number of accommodation units for visitors. These are the wishes of our guests...".
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