Expert basis
The issue in recognising the GI mainly concerns the question whether a certain area is a GI or not, or that areas may also be recognised as GI with various recognisability or value levels. In recent practices, the areas are recognised with a higher or lesser recognisability than GI, which was demonstrated, for example, by the Regional Workshop on Green Infrastructure and Ecological Connectivity [16.]. This handbook even recognises the GI in space with the help of a scale. The main goal when planning the GI is not just to preserve and increases biodiversity and the ES inventories in the existing GI areas, which are recognised as such with a higher added value, but also in areas which have been recognised as GI with a lower value level.
Photo 1: Sava river near Ljubljana creates a new, extensive water space with dynamic lateral erosion. It represents a connection between Danube salmon (Hucho hucho) and sand martin (Riparia riparia) habitats as well as human habitats.
An example of an artificial GI area is the reservoir near Kočevska Reka, which has been recognised as the feeding habitat of the white-tailed eagle, and the nearby forest is the forest reserve. The reservoir is an attractive fishing spot, and everything together is an attractive recreational tourist location. On the other hand, the area is also part of Natura 2000 due to several habitats and species. If the accumulation is removed, then we could lose a certain part of the biodiversity and some ES, but we would increase the habitats for target fish types due to the renewed natural hydro-morphology of the waters, such as, for example, the Mediterranean barbel (Barbus meridionalis) and the Balkan loach (Cobitis elongata). This could be comprehensively and successfully resolved by establishing the management of the GI and the natural resources. 16
