An Overview of Caves and Caving in Slovakia

Peter Gazik

Email: gazik@ssj.sk

Abstract

The tradition of professional and organized caving in Slovakia will be presented, including the history of the Slovak Caves Administration and its changes over the time. The legislative background and consequent tools for cave preservation will be mentioned. Also an overview of the types of karst and caves, approach to cave management and operation of show caves in Central European conditions will be described. The practices in protection of both wild and show caves will be introduced. Ways of computer handling of different issues connected with caves will be presented as well.