Sjeverni Velebit

Northern Velebit National Park was declared in 1999 and at 109 km² is the youngest of Croatia's national parks. It was created to protect a territory of well-conserved biodiversity, a great variety of karst landforms and nature in a practically authentic state, bringing together several areas already protected beforehand.

Its core is the strict reserve of Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi, some 22 km² declared a nature reserve in 1969 and protected almost entirely from any human impact: access is restricted to research and educational visits. The name kukovi refers to the great masses of stone that rise above their surroundings, and the group brings together some forty summits above 1,600 metres. Within it opens Lukina jama, one of the deepest cave systems in the world. The park also takes in the botanical reserves of Visibaba and Zavižan-Balinovac-Velika kosa and the Velebit botanical garden.

On 7 July 2017 the primeval beech forests of the strict reserve, covering 1,289.11 hectares, were inscribed on the World Heritage List within the serial property of the European beech forests. They are very old beeches but of little stature: the extreme climate and the harsh terrain have shaped them into natural bonsai, extremely slow-growing and contorted in form.