Platy limestone
as natural heritage

The protection of platy limestone as natural heritage is complicated by the fact that it is generally being quarried in small, non-industrial operations. The aim of the project is to promote the continuation of such traditional use in such a manner that all standards related to the protection of natural heritage are, on the one hand, taken into account, and on the other hand, allow quarrying under certain well-defined rules. On the basis of in-depth analysis of both regulatory systems and of existing/future extraction sites, guidelines for the sustainable exploitation of platy limestone will be proposed. As the basis for these actions, the full potential of platy limestone as natural heritage has been investigated.

First of all, a detailed overview of all legislation in force (Natura 2000 sites, protected areas, natural valuable features, caves and other limitations) related to the protection of natural heritage on the regional, national and European level (in cooperation with WP6 leaders) was carried out. The objective of said overview was in fact to identify protection standards for the preservation of natural heritage that could, in some way, limit the extraction of platy limestone. In particular, all protection standards related to existing European, national and regional regulations have been identified, collected and analyzed. Where possible, this data has been assembled in shapefile format in order to upload it to the RoofOfRock project GIS-based database, which has been specifically developed in the frame of the WP7 and WP9.

Furthermore, a detailed list of all protected areas such as geosites, natural valuable features, etc. has been extracted from archive materials (institutional websites, etc.) and analyzed for the Slovenian, Italian, Croatian and Herzegovinian parts of the project area, in order to identify specific objects and the different types of protection to which they are subjected in each country involved in the RoofOfRock project.

Particular attention was devoted to the inventorying and surveying of limestone quarries in the entire project study area

Particular attention was devoted to the inventorying and surveying of limestone quarries in the entire project study area in order to identify those who now exploit platy limestone or exploited it in the past. A specifically developed field form was adopted in order to characterize platy limestone quarries from a lithological, geomorphological, paleontological and legislative point of view. The aim of this field activity was to estimate the potential of each quarry in terms of platy limestone availability and to recognize exploitation areas that can be classified as of high natural heritage value. Moreover, a list of limitations to extraction activities has been provided for the protection of natural heritage issues.

Thanks to these activities, a list of possible exploitation areas has been drawn up in accordance with the sustainable exploitation of platy limestone, the aim of which is to protect the natural heritage features.

Then, according to the results of said actions, possible conflicts between efforts to preserve natural sites and the exploitation of platy limestone in the areas involved have been analyzed.

Finally, the last output of this work package was to provide guidelines for the future protection of natural heritage and to establish rules for the sustainable exploitation of platy limestone in areas characterized as being of high natural value.