Sara Biolchi, Stefano Devoto, Stefano Furlani, Igor Belamarić, Franco Cucchi, Radoslav Dodig, Goran Glamuzina, Jernej Jež, Bogdan Jurkovšek, Tea Kolar-Jurkovšek, Karmen Peternelj, Fabiana Pieri, Luca Zini, Gordana Zwicker Kompar, Irina Žeger Pleše
First of all an overview of the existing protection standards has been performed: the regional, provincial and municipal regulations, conventions and practices regarding the use of stone and its status as natural heritage have been analyzed.
The conflict between use and preservation is already regulated by various acts and activities, which are often not synchronized; sometimes they lack adequate professional bases and vary greatly across the project area. Based on this analysis we have prepared grounds for a joint regulatory approach to use and preservation for the entire area comprising the Adriatic karst.
Due to its enormously rich paleontological content, platy limestone has been recognized for its particular value as natural heritage since the end of the 19th century. Therefore, a program for the protection of platy limestone quarries and other interesting localities has been proposed: for existing sites as well as for those sites that may be discovered and exploited in the future an overview of legislation now in force has been drawn up with new protection standards.
Natural heritage will be preserved by promoting the sustainable exploitation of platy limestone, thus ensuring the supply of this valuable building material in order to sustain the typical karst cultural landscape.
Finally, guidelines for the development and promotion of geosites have been drawn up in order to raise awareness and to appraise certain outstanding paleontological, geomorphological or sedimentological features of quarrying sites. Nominating geosites will improve the chances of preserving platy limestone localities, and offer increased protection against overexploitation, theft and vandalism.
