ConnectGREEN Restoring and managing ecological corridors in mountains as the green infrastructure in the Danube basin
*CONFERENCE MATERIALS* For more information on the ConnectGREEN Final Conference "Protected Areas - Cornerstones of Ecological Connectivity in the Carpathians and Beyond", please click here*
The Danube-Carpathian region is one of Europe´s last remaining strongholds for the large carnivore species: gray wolf, Eurasian lynx and brown bear, protected under EU law. Unfortunately, the planned infrastructure developments threaten to cut through the movement corridors of large carnivores and increase the fragmentation of their habitats.
Photo © Thomas Hulik/WWF
Very few spatial planners have the knowledge and experience to ensure that conflicts between development and nature conservation are minimized as they develop new plans. More importantly, legally binding mechanisms taking into consideration the requirements of functioning ecological corridors is poorly implemented, mainly because of the lack of reliable data. These effects require a coherent transnational approach as the large carnivores frequently move across state borders in search of food, mates or other needs.
Thorough ConnectGREEN project, partners from different countries and various fields of activity (spatial planning, research, government, biodiversity conservation) joined forces to increase the capacity of ecological corridors identification and management and to overcome the conflict between infrastructure development and wildlife conservation. Valuable knowledge and experience will be made available to spatial planners and vice versa for finding the best ways to develop infrastructure and other plans in order secure ecological connectivity in the Carpathians.
Read project objectives from here
Long term solutions for wildlife movements
The ecological corridors will be identified in more detail by using the new Carpathian-wide methodology in 4 transnationally relevant pilot sites: 1. Piatra Craiului National Park (Romania); 2. Apuseni-SW Carpathians (Romania)/ National Park Djerdap (Serbia); 3. Western Carpathians (Czech Republic - Slovakia) and 4. Bükk National Park (Hungary)/ Cerová vrchovina Protected Landscape Area (Slovakia).
Maintaining or restoring ecological corridors will secure a viable population of large carnivores in the Carpathians and maintain one of the largest biodiversity hotspots and functioning ecosystems on the continent. Moreover, this new joint approach is meant to accelerate the implementation processes and put into practice much-awaited infrastructure developments that faces the risk of being delayed due to non-conformity with safety and environmental standards.
You can support this process by prioritizing biodiversity in the list of environmental criteria, by participating in consultations and by sharing the knowledge.
- Start date
- 01-06-2018
- End date
- 31-10-2021
- Budget in Euro
- Overall: 2462923,53
- ERDF Contribution: 1920592,41
- IPA Contribution: 172892,55
- ENI Contribution: 0
- Call number
- Call 2
- Priority
- Environment and culture responsible Danube region
- Specific objective
- Foster the restoration and management of ecological corridors
Library
| Filename | Date of upload | |
|---|---|---|
| Output 5.4 Knowledge Transfer Conference for PA Professionals | 20-01-2022 16:15:42 | |
| Output 5.4 Knowledge Transfer Conference for PA Professionals_Report | 20-01-2022 16:16:24 | |
| Output 5.3 E-learning Training Course on Eco-corridors | 20-01-2022 16:12:18 | |
| Output 5.3 E-learning Training Course on Eco-corridors_Report | 20-01-2022 16:13:15 | |
| Output 5.2 Multi-sectoral Meetings and/ or Fora | 20-01-2022 16:10:32 | |
| Output 5.2 Multi-sectoral Meetings and/ or Fora_Report | 20-01-2022 16:11:09 | |
| Output 4.3 Innovative Decision Support Tool | 20-01-2022 16:08:34 | |
| Output 4.3 Innovative Decision Support Tool_Report | 20-01-2022 16:09:10 | |
| Output 4.1 Ecological Corridors Database for each Pilot Area | 20-01-2022 16:04:33 | |
Project Partners
| Name | Type | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| WWF DCP Romania | Lead partner | cpapp@wwfdcp.ro | ROMANIA |
| WWF International Danube-Carpathian Programme | ERDF partner | hmeyer@wwfdcp.org | AUSTRIA |
| Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic | ERDF partner | martin.strnad@nature.cz | CZECH REPUBLIC |
| Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening | ERDF partner | romportl@vukoz.cz | CZECH REPUBLIC |
| Szent Istvan University | ERDF partner | kollanyi.laszlo@tajk.szie.hu | HUNGARY |
Project News
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ConnectGREEN - Deseminating project results - public outreach event in Žilina, Slovakia
- 05-10-2021
On Wednesday, the 8th of September 2021, the Slovak Environment Agency (SEA SR) organised a public space event in the city of Žilina, Slovakia, which lies approximately in the centre of the one of the four ConnnectGREEN pilot areas: “Western...
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ConnectGREEN - Final Conference in Visegrád, Hungary
- 01-10-2021
From 28-30 September, 2021, WWF, the Carpathian Convention Secretariat, the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (CNPA) Steering Committee, CEEweb for Biodiversity, and Eurac Research hosted the closing conference of the ConnectGREEN project in...
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ConnectGREEN - Stakeholder Meetings in Piatra Craiului National Park
- 16-08-2021
The central aim of the ConnectGREEN project is to contribute to maintaining and improving ecological connectivity between natural habitats, especially between Natura 2000 sites and other protected areas of transnational relevance in the...
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ConnectGREEN - Stakeholder consultation workshop for ecological connectivity in the Apuseni Mountains and South-Western Carpathians
- 07-08-2021
Colțești, Alba, Romania. July 21st, 2021. 26 key stakeholders from 9 counties covering Romania’s Apuseni Mountains and South-Western Carpathians got together in order to give their feedback on the management measures for preserving the...
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ConnectGREEN - Young environmental videographers receive their contest prizes
- 05-07-2021
On May 19th this year, the ConnectGREEN team declared the winners of the “Connectivity for all!” Youth Video Contest. Award ceremonies have been organised in all three participating countries – Romania, Slovakia and Serbia, and highly encouraging...
