Member area

ConnectGREEN Restoring and managing ecological corridors in mountains as the green infrastructure in the Danube basin

International Conference Materials

 

Conference outcomes
 

 

 

On 28-30 September 2021, the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (CNPA) Steering Committee, WWF, CEEweb, and Eurac Research held the International Conference “Protected Areas - Cornerstones of Ecological Connectivity in the Carpathians and Beyond” in Visegrád, Hungary and virtually via Zoom or a live stream on YouTube.
 

Agenda
 

For an overview of the programme, please click here for the abridged version of the CPA agenda.

 

Should you be seeking more information about individual sessions, the detailed CPA Agenda can be accessed here.

 
 

conference Day 1
 

 

The first day of the Conference opened with a welcome session with introductions by Bertalan Balczó, Deputy State Secretary, Deputy State Secretariat for Nature Protection, Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, Harald Egerer, Head of the UNEP Vienna Programme Office, Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, Mircea Verghelet, Steering Committee Chair, Carpathian Network of Protected Areas, and Irene Lucius, Conservation Director, WWF Central and Eastern Europe.

 

Materials:

This was followed by four keynote speeches by Nicola Notaro, Head of Unit, Nature Protection, European Commission - DG Environment, recorded message, Wendy Elliott, Deputy Leader Wildlife Practice, WWF International, online Gary Tabor, Executive Director, Centre for Large Landscape Conservation/ Specialist Group Leader, IUCN Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group, and Miklós Marton, Department of Environmental Development and Strategy, Ministry of Agriculture/ Steering Group Member of EU Danube Region Strategy, Priority Area 6 (EUSDR PA6), Biodiversity.

 

Materials:

Day 1 ended with the Award Ceremony of the ConnectGREEN Youth Video Contest, moderated by Hildegard Meyer, WWF-CEE.

 

Materials:
 

Conference day 2 - Morning
 

The morning on day 2 of the Conference was filled with a series of 4 parallel workshops:  

 

Workshop 1: Identification of Ecological Corridors – the ConnectGREEN Methodology     

  • Video recording;   
  • Presentation by Zuzana Okaniková, State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic and Martin Strnad and Václav Hlaváč, Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic;    
  • Presenation by Kristyna Vlková & Dušan Romportl, Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Czech Republic;   
  • Presenation by Filepné Dr. Kovács Krisztina, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences;   
  • Presentation by Christoph Plutzar, Environment Agency Austria, online
  • Presentation by Milan HUSÀR, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava - SPECTRA Centre of Excellence of EU.

Workshop 2: Integration of Ecological Corridors into Spatial Planning – How to Overcome Conflicts between Connectivity Conservation and Spatial Planning (tools and best practice)

  • Video recording;
  • Presentation by Dr. Tórök Katalin, Ökológiai Kutatóközpont;
  • Presentation by Krisztián Schneller, Lechner Tudásközpont;
  • Presentation by Dr. Kollányi László, Hungarian University for Agriculture and Life Sciences;
  • Presentation by Rastislav Staník, Slovak Environment Agency, online;
  • Presentation by Vladimir Ondrejička, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava - SPECTRA Centre of Excellence of EU.

Workshop 3: Restoration of Natural Habitat Connectivity: Different EU Projects’ Approaches to Combine Synergies and Potential Cooperation Opportunities

Workshop 4: Mainstreaming Ecological Connectivity into Policy – National Roadmaps & Recommendations for the Improvement of the EIA/SEA Directive

  • Video recording;
  • Presentation by Dr. Marina Nenković-Riznić, Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia, online;
  • Presentation by Rastislav Staník, Slovak Environment Agency, online;
  • Presentation by Oana Popescu, National Institute for Research and Development in Constructions, Urban Planning und Sustainable Spatial Development, Romania, online;
  • Presentation by Dr. Weiperth András, Hungarian University for Agriculture and Life Sciences;
  • Presentation by Dr. Mészáros Szilvia, ÖKO Zrt..

A wrap-up of the workshops was provided by Csaba Mezei, CEEweb for Biodiversity, and rapporteurs from the individual workshops on the morning of day 3.
 

Conference day 2 - afternoon
 
 

The afternoon of the 2nd day was dedicated to the Carpathian Protected Areas Conference “A new age for the Carpathian Protected Areas Network”, which was opened by Harald Egerer, Head of the UNEP Vienna Programme Office, Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, and Mircea Verghelet, Steering Committee Chair, Carpathian Network of Protected Areas.

 

Materials:

  • A video recording in two parts is available here: part 1, part 2.

The session opened with a presentation of the Interreg CentralParks project given by Hanna Öllös, European Wilderness Society, and Mircea Verghelet.

 

This was followed by Short Interventions by the CNPA Steering Committee Members:

  • Presentation by Martin Strnad, Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic; 
  • Presentation by Gyula Tar, Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary;
  • Presentation by Gabriela Szuba, Ministry of Climate and Environment of Poland;
  • Presentation by Mircea Verghelet, Piatra Craiului National Park Administration, Romania;
  • Presentation by Nenad Radaković, Djerdap National Park, and Ivan Svetozarević, Manifesto NGO, Serbia;
  • Presentation by Ján Kadelčik, State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic, 
  • Presentation by Eduard Arustamian, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.

Presentations by the Representatives of the Protected Areas from the Carpathian Countries on best practices of protected areas management and networking:

  • Presentation by Marie Petru, Barbora Duzi, Education and Information Centre of the White Carpathians, Czech Republic; 
  • Presentation by Zoltán Bihari, Aggteleki National Park, Hungary;
  • Presentation by Alin Mos, Apuseni Nature Park, Romania;
  • Presentation by Ján Kadelčik, Peter Puchala, Martina Lukanova, State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic;
  • Presentation by Mykola Tarasyuk, Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Ukraine;
  • Presentation by Mykola Derbak, Fedir Matiichyn, National Nature Park “Synevyr”, Ukraine;  
  • Presentation by Taras Yamelynets, Expert, Ukraine.

In the following session, Cristian-Remus Papp, WWF Romania, gave a presentation on the Protected Area Management Effectiveness Tool.

 

Finally, Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention gave a presentation on the "CNPA Status Quo - Need for Revision of the Strategic CNPA Documents and Discussing the Way Forward", after which ensued an interactive exercise.

 

Day two ended with a wrap-up and recommendations for next steps by Harald Egerer and Mircea Verghelet.

 
 

day 2 - parallel session: Connectivity academy
 

 

 

 

In parallel to the main CPA event, a parallel session entitled "Connectivity Academy" was held, focussing on the potential transferability of the Connect- and SaveGREEN projects' planned outputs and ad-hoc meetings on Central and Eastern European cooperation.

 

Materials:
 

day 3 - ConnectGREEN Final Conference
 

 

The final day of the 3-day event was dedicated to the ConnectGREEN Final Conference.  

 

Materials:     

The day began with an overall presentation of project results & outputs by Cristian-Remus Papp, WWF Romania, including a moderated Q&A session.  

 

After that we heard a panel discussion between the Work Package Leaders of ConnectGREEN on lessons learnt, experience made, recommendations for follow up activities and policy work.  

 

The last session of the day and the entire event was dedicated to the presentation of a Conference Declaration. After an open discussion based on which some amendments were made, the Conference Declaration was officially adopted by the participants.  

 

The Conference was called to an ceremonious end by Cristian-Remus Papp, WWF Romania, and Harald Egerer, Head of the UNEP Vienna Programme Office, Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention.

Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)