The Municipality of Kočevje

The Municipality of Kočevje is the largest municipality in Slovenia with its total area of 555.4 km2. It lies between the Lož valley and the Ribnica valley to the north, between the rivers Kolpa and Čabranka in the south and borders Bela Krajina in the east. The municipality with 74 settlements has a population of around 16,500 inhabitants. The administrative, economic and cultural centre of the municipality is the town of Kočevje, which is located in the widest part of Kočevska next to the underground stream of the Rinža River at an altitude of 464 m.

The landscape around Kočevje (Kočevska) is one of the best preserved natural areas of Slovenia and Central Europe. Almost 90% of its surface is covered by forests, with dominating Dinaric fir tree and beech species.

The region’s highlands are the remnants of mighty virgin forests in the Kočevska region, which were preserved until the end of the 19th century. As they were difficult to access, they were not managed in any way. Unspoiled nature and extraordinary biodiversity is our heritage, therefore one of the main missions of the municipality is to install the principle of sustainable development, based on the natural resources and human potential of the area.

As the leading partner and project applicant, the Municipality of Kočevje is the only contact point with the European Commission within the scope of the project partnership. We cooperate in the execution and coordination of all project activities and are as a coordinator responsible for the implementation of the C1, E1, F1 and F3 actions.

The A1 action includes the preparation of eight information panels with all required logos in accordance with the LIFE rules. The panels will be installed at the entrances of organisations. The information panels will help to increase the recognition of the LIFE project and the European Commission as a co-financier of the programme.

Our main objective is to establish and maintain an efficient system of administrative and technical management in the scope of the F1 Action, which is conducted throughout the project, i.e. 54 months, and to report to Brussels, external supervisor and co-financier, Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning about the implemented project activities. The Municipality of Kočevje also manages the administrative board and participates in the expert committee of the project.
After the concluded project activities the audit of the whole project will be provided by an external independent auditor and the final report with the audit report will be drawn up, as it is foreseen in the scope of the F3 action.

In the scope of the C1 action we want to improve habitat conditions for the proteus target group by executing various cleaning campaigns and rehabilitation operations of Karst caves and generally enhance the quality of the cave habitats which are not open to public.

With this demonstration type of action we will try to improve the ground water quality by various technical cleaning operations, cave access restrictions and monitoring of the foregoing target group and habitat type indicators. We expect that the executed activities will represent an example of good practice which could be at a later stage also transferred to other Natura 2000 sites with detected pollution of ground water sources. One of the main objectives of the action is also to raise the awareness of the local community in order to facilitate the identification of polluters and establish the supervision system.

Project leader LIFE Kočevsko: Lilijana Štefanič

Ljubljanska cesta 26, 1330 Kočevje
T: 01 89 38 232
E: lili.stefanic@kocevje.si

Expert assistant, coordinator: Anja Janeš

Ljubljanska cesta 26, 1330 Kočevje
T: 01 89 38 229
E: anja.janes@kocevje.si

The Municipality of Kočevje

Ljubljanska cesta 26
1330 Kočevje
T: 01 893 82 20
F: 01 893 82 30
E: obcina@kocevje.si

www.kocevje.si