In this Master thesis we investigated the status of natural values of local importance within the nature protection system in Slovenia, their regulation in the legislation and how this is reflected in practice. We took the Municipality of Maribor as our example. We reviewed the history of protection of individual parts of nature in the broader Maribor area, analysed the legislation and studied the protection practice in Austria. In the field, we checked the situation of localities in the region and, based on these findings, we created our data base and mapped the findings. By method of interviews we came to the conclusion that there is a significant difference between the regulations and how they are carried out in practice. In the meantime, the number of natural values (caves exempted) has been steadily declining. Since 2004 their number in the area of Municipality of Maribor has reduced by 15 %. The reason lies in unclearly defined criteria for determination of natural values, lack of coordination of competent institutions, lack of implementation of communities% tasks, not updated register and lack of funding. Therefore we propose accurate, legitimate and in transparent definition of criteria for determination of natural values, abolish the division of natural values into national and local, amendment of outdated municipal regulations, intensified cooperation of national expert institutions with communities or inter-municipal offices, appeal to the public to take the active part in recording of new localities and monitor the status of the existing ones.
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