The Ljubljana Marshes are a unique natural area in Central Slovenia. In my bachelor thesis, I aim to describe and present the effectiveness of nature protection in the area above. The first part of the thesis is an in-depth description of the physical geographic characteristics of the Ljubljana Marshes, which include its location on the bottom of the Ljubljana basin, geomorphological, climatogeographic, hydrogeographic traits, soil geography, and biogeography. Combined they create a unique area, where water plays a major role, through its presence in the soil, in the river that crosses the whole length of the area. Its role is also evident in the number of plants adapted to a very wet environment. The second part focuses on the human geography aspects. The main points are demography, population characteristics and the area’s economic structure, which is significantly characterised by the vicinity of Slovenia’s largest city. The third part describes all forms of protection of nature on the Ljubljana Marshes. Including the landscape park, the area protected by the Natura 2000 Act, nature reserves and natural monuments. The legislation and various directives establish the area’s status limit and prohibit certain activities. An overview of all restrictions be they time-determined or others are presented in the next part. The fifth part of the thesis is simultaneously the most important and central. It tackles the theme of the effectiveness of nature protection. A short overview of the literature on this subject also includes a description of the indicators used to qualify the effectiveness of nature protection in selected smaller areas on the Ljubljana Marshes. Following that the evaluation and accumulated points of each area are described. Based on the indicators certain differences were discovered between the nature reserves and nature monuments. Of which the latter had on average lower scores. Descriptions of characteristics of each area are provided alongside stand-out characteristics of the best and worst scoring areas. Good practices and further possibilities for the area's development are also included.
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