Focus Dinaric Karst
Background
The Dinaric Arc is a region of south-eastern Europe with a surface of approximately 100,000 km2 and more than 6,000 km of coastline, encompassing the whole region facing the eastern Adriatic Sea, from the city of Trieste (Italy) to Tirana (Albania). It includes portions of the following countries: Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania.
The relatively high Dinaric Alps (maximum height is 2,692 m) run parallel to the eastern Adriatic coast, and are famous for their karstic geology – Livanjsko Polje in western Bosnia being one of the largest karstic field in the world. Karst system (landscape shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite) with its underground rivers and caves harbors many endemic species, and is a globally significant aspect of the region’s biodiversity.
The Dinaric Arc hosts important freshwater ecosystems, including the most extended network of subterranean rivers and lakes in Europe, alluvial forests and wetlands of international importance, such as the Neretva delta (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia), and Skadar/Shkodra lake (Montenegro/Albania). The river Tara, which flows through Montenegro into the Drina between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, is well known for forming a long and wild canyon, one of the deepest in the world. Isolated rivers with crystal clear waters are supporting a rich and unique fish and invertebrate fauna. River gorges and canyons of the Dinaric Arc served as refugia for tertiary vegetation during the last glaciation and are now global centers of endemicity. The flora has a high endemism rate (exceeding 10% of the total flora in some areas) with many relict, steno-endemic and other restricted range species. Towards the southern end of the region, the Prokletije Massif and the “Albanian Alps” are among the wildest mountains in Europe.
Across the Dinaric Arc there are large expanses of continuous forests of beech and fir, providing habitat for a full set of large carnivores (wolf, bear, lynx, and jackal) and their prey. The eastern Adriatic coast still includes unspoiled tracts, with limited major mass tourism development. Over 1,200 islands characterize the eastern Adriatic coast in Croatia – from Cres to Mljet. The Bay of Kotor is unique in the Mediterranean, while the coast of Albania is amongst the wildest in the whole Mediterranean basin.
