The Register of Protected Natural Values of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Upisnik zaštićenih prirodnih vrijednosti) has been created according to the Nature Protection Act (Croatian Zakon o zaštiti prirode) in 2005 (Ch. III/5, OG 70/05[1] with amendments in 2008, OG 139/08[2]). The register is being administered by the Administration for Nature Protection (Croatian: Uprava za zaštitu prirode Ministarstva kulture) within the Croatian Ministry of Culture (Croatian: Ministarstvo kulture). The register serves as a reference database and unique official data source about protected areas in Croatia. The data in this register is public with the exception of special cases of confidentiality regarding the position of certain protected natural goods. The Nature Protection Act stipulates nine categories of protected areas.
According to the Register, within the Republic of Croatia 461 nature sites are protected in different categories, of which 12 are under preventive protection.[3] The protected areas cover 8.51% of the total surface out of which 11.32% belong to the continental territory and 3.38% to the Croatian maritime area. The largest part of the protected surface are the nature parks (3.71% of the total state territory).[4] Plitvice Lakes National Park is so far the only protected nature area that has also been added to the UNESCO World Heritage.