Park Management

In 1987, the then municipality of Mozirje established the Logar Valley Landscape Park, which, however, did not solve the problems related to tourism, as the municipal decree did not provide for financing for operation of the park. Therefore, the locals (mostly landowners) agreed on development goals and in 1992 they founded the non-profit private company Logarska dolina d.o.o. and obtained a management concession from the competent municipality. Due to the need for a systemic management solution for the entire destination of the Logar valley/Solčava, in 2017 the municipality of Solčava began managing the Logar Valley Landscape Park.

The park’s management performs and carries out the following activities:

• prepares a proposal for a management plan
• adopts the annual work programme for the landscape park on the basis of the management plan and performs, or ensures, the tasks specified therein
• constantly monitors and analyses the state of natural values, biodiversity and landscape diversity in the landscape park and prepares reports on the state of the landscape park
• takes care of the implementation of protection regimes and development policies and performs nature protection tasks
• takes care of the maintenance, restoration and protection of natural values in the park and other valuable parts of the park
• advises property owners in the preparation of their development programmes and in response to tenders
• cooperates with a professional organisation in the preparation of nature protection guidelines for the part related to the landscape park
• participates in the preparation of development programmes for the area and region
• cooperates with administrative bodies and organisations that, on the basis of regulations, perform tasks of protection, management or use in legally defined areas
• coordinates and monitors research tasks related to the landscape park
• implements international projects and participates in their implementation, with the additional aim of obtaining funds for the operation of the landscape park and development of the local population, presentations and professional research of the landscape park
• takes care of presentation of the landscape park, which also includes raising public awareness about the landscape park
• provides collection and access to information on the landscape park and manages the park information centre
• cooperates, professionally assists and advises land owners and residents of the landscape park in achieving the goals of protection and development of the landscape park
• prepares and maintains the park infrastructure, signs and other infrastructure necessary for visiting the park and performs a guide service in the landscape park
• takes care of natural values or parts of the landscape park for viewing and visiting in accordance with the management plan
• performs the tasks of collecting the entrance fee for motor vehicles in accordance with this Decree

In all the years of managing the Logar Valley Landscape Park, the entrance fee has been the only systemic financial source for the operation of the park, and this is still the case today. The funds are intended entirely for the costs of the management and upkeep of the valley.

Among the everyday operations, certainly the most demanding is the coordination of various private interests in the park and the search for consensus of the wider community with public interest. At the beginning of the adopted, and later amended, development policy, the management of the company Logar Valley stressed the following emphases, which, in addition to the protection of nature, also take into account the economic and social aspects:

• Economic development must not harm the environment. It must be based on natural opportunities, the heritage of the area, tradition and the local population.
• There needs to be a focus on ecotourism by marketing domestic products and services from traditional activities. The additional tourist products/services must be adapted to the purpose of protecing the landscape park.
• Accommodation facilities in the park must remain limited to the current extent. It may be possible to somewhat extend/amend their functioning and they may (subject to approval and within limits) be modernised.
• In order to preserve the natural environment and create quiet zones, individual excursion motor traffic must be gradually replaced by other forms of mobility. The village of Solčava, as the geographical centre of the area, must first develop the necessary infrastructure and provide suitable transport facilities for tourists, which will be possible through the gradual introduction of alternative transport in order to protect areas of the Logar valley and Robanov kot valley from further environmental harm.
• In the wider area of the Solčava region, it is necessary to promote the dispersed development of tourism as a complementary activity in coexistence with forestry and animal husbandry in order to preserve many mountain farms with specific economic and social conditions. In addition to the two traditional industries, ecotourism allows the establishment of a third pillar of economic and social stability.
• Encourage protection of the area if, in addition to state funding of nature protection programmes, this would also enable the appropriate participation of local communities and landowners in the management of the park. This would ensure a balanced relationship between the protection of nature and economic and social development.

The development of the park, which gives a strong economic character to the wider area, is built on a balance between conservation of nature, social and economic content, and the cooperation of competent organisations.

The company works closely with many organisations and individuals involved in the sustainable development of comparable areas. The park is a member of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas (ALPARC). Logarska d.o.o. is one of the initiators of the establishment of a regional park with neighbouring municipalities in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps. Due to its innovative way of managing the protected area and its successful work, in 2005 the company received a main CIPRA International awards in the field of protected areas in the Alps.

Website of the municipality of Solčava: www.solcava.si/objava/261005
  Decree on the management of the Logar Valley Landscape Park
  Annual report on the work in the Logar Valley Landscape Park in 2020
  Logar Valley Landscape Park Plan of Work for the year 2021
  Sustainable management action plan in the Logar Valley Landscape Park for the period 2021-2022