Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country of karst and of water: its Dinaric limestone is crossed by intensely blue rivers, deep gorges and some of the richest underground systems on the planet. Sutjeska national park protects Perućica, one of the last two primeval forests left in Europe, with beeches and firs over fifty metres tall and deadwood piled up over centuries, the habitat of brown bear, wolf, lynx and capercaillie. The Una, Neretva and Tara rivers offer oligotrophic waters and travertine falls, and the Hutovo Blato wetland, fed by karst springs, is the main waterbird stopover in the south of the country. The mountains of Herzegovina, drier and more Mediterranean, hold griffon vultures and a cliff flora full of Dinaric endemics.