The third conference of the “Dinaric Arc Parks”, organised by the WWF, was held in the
National Park Brijuni in 2014. The relevance of understanding sustainable tourism and its implementation in the protected areas were main topics of the conference.

On the third conference, the foundations were laid to establish the official Parks Dinarides Association by signing the letter of intent in order to have it officially established by the end of 2014.

“Natural phenomena are rarely stopped at the political borders; hence their protection cannot be stopped at the country borders either. The main motives of the nature protection initiative and establishing parks across country borders are to motivate the neighbouring countries to cooperate, to enable easier and better management of the protected areas and to improve the quality of life of local people in and round protected areas,” said the Croatian Minister of Environment and Nature Protection Mihael Zmajlović and proceeded: “In Croatia, we are proud of our 8 national parks and 11 parks of nature and, with our investments, we put this remarkable natural resource in the role of sustainable development so that whole regions round these parks would advance”.

“The WWF believes that the protected areas have a fundamental relevance for the protection of
the magic natural heritage in the region and that people can benefit from it. With the Parks Dinarides Association, the protected areas will be more efficient in accomplishing this important mission,” – said the director of the WWF Mediterranean Program Paolo Lombardi. “We all need to work together – governments, business sector, civil society, local communities – to be sure that people living in the parks or round them can benefit from these protected areas by combining nature protection, economic interests and benefit for people.”

Director of the National Park Brijuni Sandro Dujmović welcomed about 150 participants from 13 European countries. “Brijuni rightfully deserved the honour of hosting recognised experts and award-winning speakers, as well as many participants to the Dinaric Arc Parks international conference. It is well known that, on Brijuni, many important negotiations were implemented and historic agreements were entered into. In the same way, this conference gathers leading people in nature protection from all of the Dinaric Arc countries, explicitly showing wish for joint trans- national protection of the Dinaric ecosystem and continual cooperation of all actors from this area, from Slovenia to Albania. Therefore, gathering the Dinaric Arc parks on Brijuni is a significant event, not only for South-East Europe, but for the world natural heritage as well,” concluded Dujmović.