The Jakob award for 2023 and the title Educational trail ambassador was awarded to the project Educational trail Drvošec and Visitor center Lake Cerknica of the Public Institute of Notranjska Regional Park. They applied with the project that acquired an important upgrade in 2022. Visitor center Lake Cerknica opened at the starting point of Educational trail Drvošec on October 1. It includes an interactive exhibition where visitors can discover the world of the mysterious Lake Cerknica and listen to the stories of its transformations before or after taking a walk on the educational trail.
The
committee provided the following explanation about their decision: “The existing educational trail has been successfully upgraded
last year to bring Lake Cerknica one step closer to being included in
opportunities and tourist offer content that Slovenia can only wish for. There
is no need to create new stories about Lake Cerknica or its people, they just
need to include the existing ones in different relations where local population
can also be actively involved. Implementation of the Visitor center last year
was also a very positive experience as it has already started to contribute to
content improvement, but primarily, it introduces activities along the trail to
the visitor. The lake is one long tale and discovery of its changes that are a
consequence of the particular national habitat and a unique documentation of
centuries of human presence. We should also mention the mysticism of the place
and particular humour that can only be from “Cerknica”.