In the course of time I realised that we were not there on our own but shared the area of the pans with numerous organisms and their habitats. The members of the staff enlightened me, for example, that the area was inhabited by certain bird species that could not be found anywhere else in Slovenia. I soon became familiar with the Black-winged Stint, Common and Little Terns, Black-headed Gull … and a series of other birds that I had not known even their names earlier on. Then it dawned on me that the majority of these birds would not had been there, had the salt-making been abandoned in the pans. Namely, the water regime and reconstruction of salt-pan levees, which prevent uncontrolled spilling od water across the salt-fields, protect not only the salt-fields and the village of Sečovlje from floods, but also prevents water to overflow the nest-sites of these rare birds.
This was why I found it easier to understand why the planned extension of the Portorož Airport's runway was simply impermissible. Not only that the salt-making production would be badly affected,  the nest-sites of rare birds, natural habitats of special halophylous plants, fish species  (e.g. Mediterranean Killifish) and other living beings would be lost for all times. In our endeavours to preserve the Park's integrity we were greatly aided, however, by the EU's nature-conservationist legislation based on the network of special ecological areas, joint in the Natura 2000 network. And the Sečovlje salt-pans easily took their place among the »jewels« of nature-conservancy areas of European concern. As the EU is aware of the significance of such areas, no changes can thus be made in their boundaries, integrity and ecological character merely owing to certain economic interests.
Conservation of the pans, their living and non-living world, cultural heritage and landscape is our basic vocation. In this respect we are aided a great deal by the means allocated for us by the EU within the  Life Nature project's framework.