DEFORESTATION AROUND THE WORLD - India Environment Portal

Dinaric Karst – An Example of Deforestation and Desertification of Limestone Terrain
Fig. 10. Bare high ridge of the Velebit Mountain (photo A. Kranjc).
Fig. 11. Stony pasture on the Pag Island, sea side slopes of the Velebit Mountain in the
background (photo A. Kranjc).
While the number of inhabitants increased, economic facilities did not follow the population
growth. Data from the Karlovac district of Croatia, which has an extremely great proportion
of karst landscape, can be shown as an example. In the middle of the 18 th century, there
were 940 inhabitants per square mile, while hundred years later, in 1850, there were 1824.
This means that the population nearly doubled in a hundred years (Wessely, 1876). It was
not a specific of the Karlovac district, in many parts or even in majority of Dinaric Karst the
greatest population pressure on karst land was during the 19 th century. Regarding the
available data the example of Dinaric Karst in Slovenia can be taken into consideration. In
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