The Evening for Pohorje was held at the Kope Center

As part of the Brati gore festival, an Evening for Pohorje was held on Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at the Kope Center, a multifunctional facility in the Municipality of Mislinja na Kope, organized by the RRA Koroška. The diverse program included screenings, a round table, and a book presentation.

In his opening remarks , the Director of the Regional Development Agency of Koroška, Uroš Rozman, highlighted the long-standing efforts and activities of the Regional Development Agency of Koroška for a more sustainable development of the Pohorje area. Numerous projects, an active role in the Partnership for Pohorje and now also in the future management of the Pohorje Regional Park, are the result of the planned work of individuals, companies and broader regional and interregional networking.

The main part of the event was a round table discussion entitled "The Pohorje Regional Park is here. What now?" Peter Zajc from the RRA Koroška, a geographer and one of the vice-presidents of the international Alpine organization CIPRA International from Liechtenstein, spoke with two insightful interlocutors: Andrej Grmovšek, a top alpinist and head of the Pohorje Regional Park, which is managed by the Slovenian Institute for Nature Conservation. And Andrej Gulič, a historian, a good expert on the Pohorje past, and also the author of the book "Pohorje and Kozjak": mountain huts, homes, shelters, resorts, health resorts, boarding houses, viewpoints and pilgrimage points on Pohorje and Kozjak until the end of World War II.

Pohorje is today a place of numerous, sometimes conflicting, interests and conflicts. The regional park can play an important role in harmonizing interests and mitigating conflicts.

Andrej Grmovšek pointed out that the park has an important awareness-raising, communication and connecting role, but not all "threads" are in the hands of the park. However, the park will strive to actively address and coordinate numerous interests, which is a distinct long-distance race. Mobility, technology, marketing and accessibility of information have meant that people today are present in a significantly larger area and more remote areas for leisure purposes than in the past.

Peter Zajc highlighted the long-standing efforts to regulate illegal driving in the natural environment differently, which is a real and increasingly pressing issue in Pohorje, unfortunately also with fatalities and injuries to children. However, without the necessary changes to the legislation with disproportionately low fines, changes will be almost impossible, despite the existence of the Pohorje Regional Park. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning submitted amendments to the Nature Conservation Act for public discussion in the summer of 2024, which would eliminate these anomalies, but it seems that the process has stalled again. According to known information, the draft Act has not yet been coordinated and has not been forwarded for consideration by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, which would then submit it to the legislative procedure of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia.

At the Pohorje Evening, a short video about the project and the results of the Pohorje project was also shown, as well as the short animated film "The Wild Rooster - The Secret Life of a Year and a Quarter". The latter has received attention at several film festivals in Slovenia. This year, it will also be shown at the Bovec Outdoor Film Festival.

As a reminder, RRA Koroška operates as one of the three Alpine Convention information points in Slovenia. The Alpine Convention is an international treaty for the protection of the Alps and the promotion of sustainable development in the Alpine region, and represents the cooperation of eight Alpine countries and the European Union.

At the same time, the RRA Koroška will participate in the management of the Pohorje Regional Park, established in 2024. Today, Pohorje is a place of numerous, even conflicting, interests and conflicts.

The Reading the Mountains Festival was created on 11 December 2015, the day declared by the United Nations as the annual International Mountain Day. It was created to mark International Mountain Day and to promote events dedicated to mountains and literature in different parts of the Alps. The Reading the Mountains Festival promotes the celebration of cultural diversity and similarities in the Alps and creates connections between mountains and culture.

For those attending the event, free bus transportation was organized on the route Mislinja–Slovenj Gradec–Kope and back, thereby contributing to promoting a more sustainable and active form of mobility.