Description
Description (EN): Fascinating, mysterious, enchanting: the caves are an attractor factor of tourist flows. ADRION area is well established tourism destination with intensive short summer season, but limited tourism in other parts of the year. However, potentials for developing all year tourism destinations are many and natural, cultural and historical heritage sites can play an important role: this is the main challenge of the project. The main project intervention objective of the Adriaticaves project is to establish and promote natural and archaeological heritage in caves of the ADRION as an alternative all year long tourism product.The project focuses on the sustainable development of accessible caves including ecotourism, establishment of a network of touristic caves in the ADRION and also conservation of karst areas and the other caves not open to the public with habitat 8310 (92/43/EEC dir), threatened by climate change and illegal dumping. The aspects of training, creating new professions to improve socio-economic conditions of mountain areas, transferring of best practice among PPs will play a key role and will contribute to the achievement of the general objective of the strategic theme: to develop a joint cross-border sustainable tourism platform within the ADRION area aiming at implementation of new models for sustainable tourism management as a development engine in the area and reducing the seasonality of tourism through the marketing of the unique natural and cultural potential that can be visited throughout the year. Moreover the project also follows some specific EU legislation on caves and karst landscapes. These specific habitats are protected under the Dir. 92/43/EEC and host species protected under the same Directive and the 09/147/EU: the project tackles the problem of tourism regulation in order to avoid conflicts with protected habitats and species, includes activities to evaluate the impact of visitors and the carrying capacity of caves. Main outputs of the project are: 1) the new brand route of caves "Adriaticaves", a new international brand for minor and sustainable tourism caves, linked to protected areas or sites of natural or historical interest, for holistic and cultural tours all-round, to be used as a motor for the tourist development of the Adrion areas; 2) the Charter of Caves, an international agreement to be signed by cave operators, with a discipline to ensure the sustainable tourism use of visitable caves, respect for the natural and historical heritage in them and the implementation of visits of high educational and cultural value; 3) the international Action Plan for habitat 8310, an action plan drawn up in accordance with the Directive 92/43/EEC to ensure the conservation of habitat 8310 "Caves" protected by the directive and to ensure that the activity of tourist use of caves is in compliance with the European legislation, guaranteeing both the managers and the visitors and, ultimately the same Adriaticaves project.
Read more Achievements (EN): The Adriaticaves project financed by the European Union with funds from the INTERREG V-B Adriatic-Ionian Programme (ADRION) 2014-2020 ends tomorrow. 7 qualified partners of 6 nationalities took part to the project: the Majella National Park (Italy), lead partner, the Regional Council of Shkodra (Albania), the Cantonal Public Institution for Protected Natural Areas (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the Velebit Nature Park Public Institution (Croatia), the Authority for the Management of Parks and Biodiversity-Romagna (Italy), the TC Lipa cave ltd (Montenegro), and the City of Čačak (Serbia).
The project aim was to promote sustainable management practices for the enhancement and conservation of the natural and archaeological heritage of caves in the Adriatic area. The major outputs concerned the following 3 fields:
1) the creation of an international Adriaticaves brand for “minor” and sustainable speleological tourism to be used as an engine for the tourist development of the ADRION area;
2) the Charter of the Caves, an international agreement signed by cave operators, with a discipline aimed at guaranteeing sustainable tourism in the caves managed by them;
3) an international Action Plan, drawn up in compliance with the Habitat Directive (92/43 / EEC), to ensure the conservation of the habitat 8310 “Caves not open to the public” and at the same time to guarantee that tourist activities comply with European legislation, without neglecting to improve cave accessibility.
Thanks to the signing of the “Charter of the Caves”, 37 underground cavities of 7 countries (the 6 partner nations plus Slovenia) are illustrated in the international book (in 4 languages) entitled “The Book of Caves of the Adriatic and Ionian Areas” which reports the 17 caves of the project partners and another 20 managed by organizations that have signed this document, committing themselves to manage their caves according to the quality and sustainability standards adopted within the project.
A catalogue of proposals entitled “From Cave to Cave” allows you to organize your own journey among the hidden wonders of the underground world that are waiting to be discovered in the project partners’ caves. 19 are the “local” tourist packages but the catalogue also offers all the useful information needed to organize your own international tour among these caves. The project has in fact also trained the speleological guides of each partner to make high quality visits to project caves, making them more and more interesting. These speleoguides agreed with a document of commitments to ensure a high standard quality in accordance with the principles of sustainability of the project and in respect of the underground environment. Besides, a network of speleoguides aimed at circulating information and good practices has been created. The training of speleoguides was also finalized at the creation of new professional figures as a contribution to the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of the mountain areas, another purpose of the project.
Where necessary, various project caves have been subjected to careful scientific monitoring for the detection of chemical-physical parameters, and in one case geomicrobiological analysis have been carried out, in order to be able to control both the impact of tourism on the underground environment by establishing the maximum number and optimal frequency of visits in order to guarantee that both the safety of operators and visitors are sustainable with respect to the emissions of Radon, a harmful gas present in more or less high concentrations in caves.
All this was told in the final conference of the Adriaticaves project, on 12 March 2021, which registered the participation of 22 qualified speakers and was followed online in Italian and English with simultaneous translation by the guests of the 7 project partners as participants and by other members as listeners. The morning involved the greetings of the authorities and interventions of a more general nature on the managerial and scientific aspects of the project, as well as on the ADRION funding channel and on the other projects of the same cluster to which Adriaticaves belongs. In the afternoon interventions on sustainable tourism alternated to the reports from each Adriaticaves project partner who presented the activities they carried out during the project. For those who have not been able to follow the Conference, it is possible to watch the videos uploaded on the project website at the following link:
LINK FOR MORNING SESSION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2gbYj3LrV8
LINK FOR AFTERNOON SESSION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5TDB7tUJg
Read more
Website: http://www.adrioninterreg.eu/
Expected Results (EN): Level of capacity for the stakeholders in the fields of natural and cultural heritage protection and tourism to sustainably valorise natural and cultural heritage as a growth asset
Expected Outputs (EN): These are the project expected results, I think we are fitting almost all (except from the barred one):
o Enhancement of the competencies/skills of relevant stakeholder parties in the fields of sustainable valorisation and tourism;
o Enhancement of the “body of knowledge” through transnational research, pilots, tools and experimentation;
o Development of a well-defined transnational identity and raising awareness on common heritage in the Adriatic-Ionian area as an orientation framework for individual actions;
o Improved involvement of tourism stakeholders, visitors and the society for the development of jointly agreed utilisation approaches;
o Preserved natural and cultural heritage and valorised within the Programme area brand name;
o Diversification of tourism products along topic, season, target group and environmental and social impact.
o Enhancement of the skills of cave managers in the fields of sustainable valorisation and tourism;
o Enhancement of the basic transnational data about caves ecosystem and their carrying capacity;
o Development of a well-defined transnational identity of the tourist caves of ADRION area;
o Improved involvement of tourist operators, cave managers, guides, visitors for the development of jointly agreed utilisation approaches;
o Preserved natural and cultural heritage and valorised within the name of Adriaticaves;
o Diversification of tourism products along topic, season, target group and environmental and social impact.
Read more
Thematic information
Specific Objective:
Promote the sustainable valorisation and preservation of natural and cultural heritage as growth assets in the Adriatic-Ionian area
Thematic Objective:
(06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:
Investment Priority:
(06c) Conserving, protecting, promoting and developing natural and cultural heritage
Partners (7)
Lead Partner:
Ente Parco Nazionale della Majella
Address:
Via Occidentale 6, 66016 Guardiagrele, Italy
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.parcomajella.it
Total budget:
EUR 418 004.44
ERDF budget:
EUR 355 303.77
-
Javna ustanova Park prirode Velebit
-
Name:
Javna ustanova Park prirode Velebit
Department:
Nature Park Conservation, Promotion and Use Department
Address:
Kaniža gospićka 4b, 53000 Gospić, Croatia
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.pp-velebit.hr
Total budget:
EUR 107 949.57
ERDF budget:
EUR 91 757.13
-
Grad Čačak
-
Name:
Grad Čačak
Department:
Department of Local economy development
Address:
Župana Stracimira 2, 32000 Čačak, Serbia
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.cacak.org.rs
Total budget:
EUR 126 166.40
IPA2 budget:
EUR 107 241.44
-
Këshilli I Qarkut Shkodër
-
Name:
Këshilli I Qarkut Shkodër
Department:
Projects division
Address:
Nentori 28, 400 Shkodër, Albania
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.qarkushkoder.gov.al
Total budget:
EUR 51 814.83
IPA2 budget:
EUR 44 042.61
-
Ente di gestione per i Parchi e la Biodiversità-Romagna
-
Name:
Ente di gestione per i Parchi e la Biodiversità-Romagna
Address:
Via Aldo Moro 2, 48025 Riolo Terme, Italy
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.parchiromagna.it
Total budget:
EUR 300 925.18
ERDF budget:
EUR 255 786.40
-
Kantonalna javna ustanova za zaštićena prirodna područja
-
Name:
Kantonalna javna ustanova za zaštićena prirodna područja
Address:
Branilaca Sarajeva 28, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Legal status:
public
Website:
http://www.zppks.ba
Total budget:
EUR 117 136.76
IPA2 budget:
EUR 99 566.25
-
TP Lipska pećina d.o.o.
-
Name:
TP Lipska pećina d.o.o.
Department:
Marketing department
Address:
Lipa Dobrska no.nb., 81250 Cetinje, Montenegro
Legal status:
private
Website:
http://www.lipa-cave.me
Total budget:
EUR 203 238.92
IPA2 budget:
EUR 172 753.08
