The European Union (EU) has one of the largest ratios of protected nature in the world and Croatia as a small country will bring the EU an exceptionally valuable, rare and diverse nature which measured in amount of protected areas is below the European average but the area of its ecological Natura 2000 network has the highest percentage in the EU.
Protected areas on a national level in the 27 member states account for 15.3% of European Union territory.
Croatia has a total of 435 protected areas which is approximately 8.5% of its total territory. Half of these protected areas consist of 11 nature parks. Other protected areas include 2 reserves, 8 national parks, 79 special reserves, 2 regional parks, followed by natural monuments, particular landscapes, forest parks and architectural parks, the State Nature Protection Institute has reported.
Around one-quarter of the EU is protected by the Natura 2000 network and 37% of Croatia's territory has been proposed for the network, which is the highest rate in the EU.
Natura 2000 is aimed at stopping the dramatic destruction of biological diversity. More than 700 species in Europe are threatened with extinction, particularly bird-life and mammals.
Croatia consists of four of the nine possible European bio-geographical regions: Mediterranean, Continental, Alpine and Pannonian. In comparison, Hungary which is twice the size of Croatia has only one region. Croatia is one of the leading countries in Europe and the world with regard to its biological diversity.
Croatia has 38,000 known species which is an exceptionally high number for such a relatively small country. Of that number 2,235 species of plant and animal life are considered to be endangered.
