Slovenia was voted as the European Green Capital of 2016, due to its efforts towards maintaining sustainable environments and its green initiatives throughout the country, including in the capital city of Ljubljana.
The part of the country that is near the coast uses the sea as a source of food from fishing as well as a source of sea salt. The sea salt produced by the port town of Piran is a major export of Slovenia and tastes amazing when added to any food dish. The population in the rest of the country, which is primarily covered by forests, uses game meat such as deer, boar or bear for food as well as bees for honey, another major export of Slovenia. Slovenian honey is some of the best in the world! The vast cave systems in southern Slovenia have been used for both exploration, biological research and tourism, as we saw in the previous article about the Postojna cave system where the famous olm (cave salamander). Caves also provide a place of protection, as with the Predjama Castle which was built into the caves. In fact, caves in Slovenia have been used for shelter for an incredibly long time. The prehistoric relatives to modern-day humans, the Neanderthals, used to inhabit the caves of Slovenia, and the oldest instrument on earth was actually discovered in Slovenia, made by Neanderthals over 50,000 years ago!
In this environment, people are challenged by the varying environmental conditions within a relatively small area. Near the coast, the climate is Mediterranean and stays relatively mild all year long.
