Description
The Still Water Revival project is located in the Croatian Mediterranean karstic mountains Dinara, Biokovo, Velebit and Ucka. Project focus is on the still freshwater ecosystems as biodiversity hotspots.
As these ecosystems within the region are historically mostly man-made, being a water source for people and cattle, they are highly dependent on management. In the last several decades this part of Croatia, and generally SE Europe, is facing abandonment of traditional farming practices, people leaving rural areas and without appropriate management these critical ecosystems are left to succession and finally to disappearance. Repercussions of those trends are loss in biodiversity related to these ecosystems impacting species such as amphibians and aquatic insects (which depend on water at least part of their living cycle) and also species which use them as drinking water source or feeding ground. In addition, losing these ecosystems thoroughly impacts cattle breeders and shepherds and aggravates conditions for keeping the cattle in remote areas.
