PhD candidate Leona Matotek participated in the 2026 Regional Conference of the International Geographical Union (IGU), held from 17 to 21 August 2026 at Istanbul University. The conference brought together 950 scientists from 64 countries and focused on current geographical topics, including globalization and localization, climate change, migration and conflicts, natural disasters, and other issues.
At the conference, Leona presented the paper “Tourism management in protected natural areas of Croatia under climate change” within the Commission on Geography of Tourism, Leisure, and Global Change, as part of the session “Sustainable Tourism in the Era of Global Climate Change.”
The research was conducted in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Kopački Rit Nature Park, and the Vis Archipelago Geopark. The findings show that the impacts of climate change and adaptation approaches differ depending on the characteristics and level of tourism pressure in each protected area.
The research was conducted within the framework of the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) project PACT-VIRA.
More about the conference:http://https://www.irc2026.org/en/
More about the project:http://https://iztzg.hr/hr/projekti/znanstveni-projekti/pact-vira/