1991 - 2006. EUROBATS celebrates its 15th anniversary

98
EUROBATS Publication Series No 1 Countries
was issued to the sponsors. SDPVN did not
receive any official replies to its appeals (in-
cluding an Appeal for Temporary Protection
in 2004), nor was it sent documents it asked
for, so in July 2003 it turned for help to the
Secretariats of the Environment DG, the
Bern Convention, the Bonn Convention and
EUROBATS. These bodies contacted the government
and asked for an explanation. Nevertheless,
the official opening for tourists
took place in September 2003, when bats
are normally still in residence in the cave.
Reacting to the concern raised by the Bern
Convention and EUROBATS Secretariats,
the government slowly began to act.
In 2004, the bat monitoring scheme was
granted financial support (Presetnik 2004b),
even though this was not particularly necessary,
since data had already been gathered
over a long period (Koselj 2002) and
filed at the responsible Ministry. It seems
though, that the lighting system and the
metal construction, which produces loud
ultrasonic noise when walked on, will not
be removed, which is worrying. But still, the
government finally initiated procedures for
the proper protection of the roost, and that
is a very positive outcome.
European Bat Nights
Various myths about bats’ evil nature are
widespread in Slovenia, as elsewhere. To
achieve efficient bat conservation, these
prejudices have to be overcome by educating
the people. An important part of
SDPVN’s public awareness activities is the
EUROBATS
European Bat Night initiative (EBN). In
1998, SDPVN organized an EBN for the first
time in Slovenia. It was an instant success,
so since then such events have been orga-
nized all over the country and promoted
with displays of EUROBATS EBN posters.
Permanent features of the program have
been lectures on bats and evening walks
using bat detectors. Bats are unusual creatures,
so SDPVN employs some unusual
methods when presenting them. Especially
successful events were art workshops for
children, photo exhibitions about bats set
up in popular coffee bars and an original
puppet play, “What does uncle Julce have
in his attic?” To reach as many people as
possible, bat slides were often projected
out of doors, even on the central square in
Ljubljana. Several organizations have cooperated
in producing the event in their areas.
A particularly fruitful contribution was
that of a local mystical society, Vrbov log, to
a presentation near Ajdovska Jama during
EBN 200 . EBNs have always received good
media coverage in the press and on the internet,
radio and TV.
It is important to keep up such bat-promoting
activities throughout the year. In
2004 and 200 , SDPVN was a leading partner
in the “Bats in the Natura 2000 network”
project, financially supported by the government.
We visited a large number of parish
priests responsible for churches included in
the Natura 2000 network because of their
importance for bats. They usually agreed to
bat protection issues being raised in their
churches. In addition, the local people were
acquainted with bats through lectures that
showed them the treasures around them.
The outlook for bat conservation
in Slovenia
Most bat conservation activities in Slovenia
have been performed in the last eight years,
practically always within the framework of