Protected Areas

Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area

The Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area was founded in 1976 and its area is 65,504 ha. It covers a substantial part of the mountains of the same name dividing the Záhorská and the Podunajská plain. The nature protection of the Little Carpathians is to protect valuable flora and fauna species and phytocenosis, sporadically preserved forest communities as well as attractive geological formations. Diversified geological structure, various rugged topography, unique soil and climatic conditions caused occurrence of great richness of plant and animal species and communities, natural occurrence of which have remained to the large extent.
Attractions of the Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area are mainly rock formations, valleys and karst phenomena; Dolné Záhorie region also covers the Borinský and Plavecký karst. The only cave in Western Slovakia open to public is the Driny cave, which is located in the Smolenický karst.
Several palaentological and archaelogical sites are located in the Little Carpathians; they document the rich history and are of great cultural and scientific importance. From this point the Deravá skala cave near Plavecký Mikuláš is interesting, since it was settled by a man as early as Palaeolithic Era.
Dominant feature of the foot of southern and eastern part of the Little Carpathians PLA represents extensive vineyards; the Little Carpathians are the only protected landscape area of a vineyard character.
3 national nature reserves belong to the Little Carpathians PLA in Dolné Záhorie region (Kršlenica NNR, Pohanská NNR and Roštún NNR) and 5 nature reserves (Bukovina NR, Klokoč NR, Pod Pajštúnom NR, Strmina NR and Vysoká NR).
The protected bird area Little Carpathians was founded in 2005 and 3 areas of the European importance are part of the European Protected Areas Network NATURA 2000.

Záhorie Protected Landscape Area

The Záhorie Protected Landscape Area was established in 1988 as the first lowland protected landscape area in Slovakia; it extends on the area of 27,552 ha. Seat of the Záhorie Protected Landscape Area administration is Malacky.
The protected landscape area is divided into two parts. The western part protects valuable floodplain forests at the bottomland of the Morava River and pine forests growing on aeolian sands can be found in the eastern part of the protected landscape area.
The natural character of the western part has been preserved thanks to its location in the border zone behind the iron curtain inaccessible to the public for four decades. Thanks to its “conservation,” one can admire remains of original floodplain forests, dead stream branches and the largest complex of water-meadows in Central Europe listed in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.
A hiking path, which belongs to the longest hiking paths in Slovakia, leads through PLA along the Morava River. The path runs from confluence of the Danube and Morava River under the Devín Castle and ends in Moravský sv.Ján, thus reaching the length of 80 km.
North-eastern part of this PLA is influenced by aeolian processes related to sand transfer; relief is created by dunes and shifting walls. The Záhorie plain represents an important route of migrating birds as it crosses mountain ranges on the north-south route. The temperature contrast between cold interdune depressions and warmed sand dunes has conditioned rich plant species diversity with alternation of mountain species as remains of the colder periods and species typical for warm and dry places.
Záhorie PLA in Dolné Záhorie region covers several small-area protected territories, 3 national nature reserves (Abrod NNR with quaggy vegetation and floodplain forests reserves the Dolný les National Nature Reserve and the Horný les National Nature Reserve), 4 nature reserves (Bezodné NR, Bogdalický vrch NR, Nové pole NR, Šmolzie NR) and 3 protected areas.
The region includes several areas belonging to the Protected Areas Network NATURA 2000, namely 22 areas of the European importance. One of the suggested bird areas is also Morava.