A New Clash of Activists and ‘Golfers’ at Prukljansko Lake, Worth 300 Million Euros

Last month’s government decision to accept the offer from an investor interested in building a golf resort at Prukljansko Lake has revitalized the effort to develop golf tourism and transform Croatia into an attractive golf destination, a process that has been marked by resistance, loud discussions, occasional controversies, and negligible results over the past two decades. 

Seven years after the project was included on the list of strategic projects and one year after the only bidder responded to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Property’s tender, consent has been expressed for the company Dalmatia sport and health resort to build golf courses with accommodation facilities, a marina, and beaches along the attractive shores of Prukljansko.

This company, based in Split, is owned by The Dalmatian Resort Croatia registered in the Netherlands, and the required guarantees that it will financially back the project have been secured by companies owned by Ali Parse, a British investor of Iranian descent.

Although this potentially represents one of the largest investments in tourism, worth 300 million euros, the government’s acceptance of the only submitted offer has largely gone under the radar during the summer, so discussions louder than those at the Šibenik City Council meeting, with warnings that the enormous amounts of water and pesticides needed to maintain the golf courses and the increase in navigation traffic will severely disrupt the characteristics of the estuary, and indirectly affect  the shellfish farms downstream, are yet to be expected.

– The planned golf resort project at Prukljansko Lake is at least as controversial as the planned golf resort project on Srđ above Dubrovnik. Unfortunately, the model of golf course construction being pushed in Croatia is exclusively linked to real estate development. This model enables megalomaniacal tourist construction in prime locations where, under normal circumstances and according to all other applicable rules, no construction would ever take place. – says  Enes Čerimagić, a lawyer at the Environmental Law Program  of Green Action, an environmental protection organization that has opposed golf on the hill above Dubrovnik.

Last month, the approved golf resort project at Prukljano is one of a total of 14 initiated golf projects that are currently at various stages of still paper-based realization. Among them are projects for which there are investors ready to start construction immediately, as soon as they gather all the necessary remaining permits or finalize ongoing negotiations with the state regarding specific project issues, as well as projects for which there is already the necessary building or location permit or an accepted Environmental Impact Study, or the mentioned documentation is in the process of acceptance but still needs to find an investor.

Among the key reasons for the slow realization of golf projects pointed out by investors are the lengthy, non-transparent, and very complex process of obtaining 300 permits and approvals that need to be provided by 22 institutions, slow administration, non-compliance with prescribed deadlines, often unfounded lawsuits, and disorganized land registries. Interested investors also complain about strict environmental protection regulations as well as environmental protectors who impose a series of conditions on them for golf projects, thereby preventing their construction at most planned locations.

Read more on this topic in the new issue of the digital and printed edition of Lider.