"We have chosen to join a group of countries that care a lot about their environment and we have embraced high standards that we have to observe. The fact that we are a leading country in Europe in terms of biodiversity is a great recognition to us, but it is also a great challenge and obligation. It's a challenge to use our natural resources for development in a sustainable manner and an obligation to preserve our nature and environment for future generations. The Ministry is working within its powers to accomplish these goals, and this day is an example of how to encourage every individual through various activities to care about the environment," Zmajlovic told the press.

Bernard Ivcic, head of Croatia's largest environmental protection association Green Action, said that unfortunately this year too there was no reason for celebration.

"The Croatian government, with the law on strategic investment projects and under the guise of economic prosperity, will actually cause devastation of public natural resources. With no long-term plan for waste management, it will bring us to a situation that already next year we will have to pay penalties to the European Union for failing to meet the goal of reducing biodegradable waste by 25 per cent in relation to 1997. The proposed law on environmental protection abolishes the ecological network, and the future Natura 2000 area will cover as much as 32 per cent less surface than is now the ecological network. By actively advocating the construction of coal-fired thermal power plant Plomin C, the governments is putting Croatia among countries that will continue contributing to climate change over the next 50 years," Ivcic told the media.