PRELIMINARY MEETING HELD FOR PROTECTING THE HABITAT OF THE WATER ARUM IN THE LOCALITY OF SUNGERSKI LUG NEAR MRKOPALJ

The Water Arum (Calla palustris) is a protected boreal and relict species. Its only known habitat in the County of Primorje and Gorski Kotar and, indeed, in Croatia, is a small marshy depression located within an acidophilus fir forest at Sungerski Lug not far from Mrkopalj in
Gorski Kotar.

To preserve this critically threatened plant, at least in the foreseeable future, our goal is to develop and implement a preliminary plan for protecting the plant and its habitat. Not only is the habitat of the Water Arum of great importance to the County of Primorje and Gorski
Kotar, but it has been included to the proposal of the National Ecological Network of Croatia, and, as an exceptionally rare and important plant, it has been included in the proposal Croatia’s is preparing for the European Ecological Network of the EU known as NATURA 2000.

The preliminary meeting held in Sunger on 8 May 2005, under the organisation of the Public Institution “Priroda” and the Municipality of Mrkopalj,was convened with the purpose of initiating the procedure for the legal protection of the Water Arum. Present at the meeting were the representatives
of the:

1. Municipality of Mrkopalj,
2. Tourist Board of Mrkopalj,
3. Prof. Jasenka Topić, Ph.D.
4. Natural History Museum of Rijeka,
5. State Institute for Nature Protection,
6. Association “Sungerski Lug”,
7. Forest Management Company “Hrvatske Šume”, Forest Office of Mrkopalj,
8. Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb,
9. BIUS – Association of Biology Students,
10. Public Institution “Priroda”.

The conclusions of the meeting are as follows:

• The meeting unanimously supports the proposal to provide protection to the Water Arum and its bog habitat in the category of natural monument.
• The Faculty of Forestry agrees, in the fall, to clear the bog area of logs and branches, under the professional assistance of Prof. Jasenka Topić, Ph.D.
• The members of BIUS, Association of Biology Students, will thoroughly research the bog and the Water Arum.
• The Tourism Board will undertake to mark and valorise the bog area.
• In collaboration with the Faculty of Forestry, the State Institute for Nature Protection, the Natural History Museum of Rijeka, Prof. Jasenka Topić and BIUS, the Public Institution “Priroda” will prepare the documentation needed for proclaiming the bog habitat of the Water Arum a
  protected area.