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At a time when climate change is slowly eating away our planet and its ecosystems, it’s a win for nature in Slovenia – the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee that recently convened in Krakow, Poland inscribed Slovenia’s Krokar virgin forest and the Snežnik-Ždrocle forest reserve as Unesco World Heritage sites. What makes these forests special is the fact that they’ve been around since pre-historic times with ancient beech trees that chart the development of the European continent’s ecosystem and biodiversity.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these forests have been untouched by the wrath of urbanisation – Slovenia is after all one of the most eco-friendly countries in the world, with its capital Ljubljana spearheading the green initiative and bagging the title of Europe’s most sustainable city and 66 per cent of the nation is protected forest land.

Slovenia’s beech forests will appear on the list alongside 61 new forests areas which include of Germany, Ukraine and Slovakia, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Spain.

Before the forests of Krokar and Snežnik-Ždrocle, the only Slovenian monument to make it to the Unesco list were the Škocjan Caves (world’s largest underground canyon). Guided tours are conducted of the canyon, its underground River Reka basin and the surrounding Karst landscape (limestone plateaus); visit park-skocjanske-jame.si.