Javna ustanova "Priroda"

The wealth of natural heritage in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County has created the need for special protection of important natural areas. To preserve the natural heritage of the County, 31 natural areas and individual features of importance have been protected by means of eight different categories. Most of these protected areas were proclaimed in the period from the 1950s to the 1980s. The first to be protected, when it was declared a special forest vegetation reserve in 1949, was Dundo Forest on the island of Rab.

The total surface of the protected natural areas in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County amounts to 263.3 km², which represents 3.35 % of the total (land and sea) area of the County. The total surface area of the protected natural areas of land is 218.54 km², or 6.09 % of the total land area. The only protected marine area is the waters around the island of Prvić, including the Grgur Channel, whose surface area comes to 44.76 km², or 1.05 % of the total marine area of the County.