Declaration for a greener transport infrastructure in Europe

In the framework of the TRANSGREEN Final Event, the EU-level Conference „Pathways to Greener Transport Infrastructure” organized on June 25th, 2019, by WWF under the patronage of the Romanian Presidency to the Council of the European Union and the Romanian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), the solutions developed in the five countries of the project - Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary - were launched and promoted for integration into the region's public policies.

At the end of the event, international participants from a variety of fields - transport, environment, academia, construction, research, technology - contributed to the adoption of the "Bucharest Conference Declaration for a greener transport infrastructure in Europe".

• The declaration calls on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the national governments of the Danube-Carpathian region to preserve the beauty and richness of the region's biodiversity by promoting coordination between national and international institutions for a systemic integration of biodiversity policies and transport objectives, including financial aspects.
• At the same time, they should create a common and accessible database containing high quality data, tools, information and knowledge on biodiversity, spatial planning and the development of transport infrastructure to support planning and decision-making processes.
• Recognizing that adequate spatial planning is the only approach that will support sustainable transport infrastructure, will prevent the progressive isolation of wildlife populations and the loss of biodiversity.

You can read the full text of the Declaration here.

Steps forward towards nature-friendly roads in the Carpathians

During the TRANSGREEN Final Event, important steps forward were taken for roads that take nature into account as a result of 5 Carpathian countries – Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine – joining forces in unprecedented effort to reconcile the region’s growing transport infrastructure network with its unique biodiversity, as part of the TRANSGREEN project. These steps mean both a more favorable attitude towards integrated transport planning, but also developing and launching new tools to help planners and builders in the process.

"In the Romanian society, a conflict has been created between those who want to protect the environment and those who want motorways. Since 2005, we decided to reconcile these two "camps" and submitted a grant application for the TRANSGREEN project. I am very pleased that environmental organizations are reaching out to us and saying "we too want infrastructure, but only under certain conditions." You have our support. I hope that in the future our society will change its perspective and see that both sides want to develop infrastructure ", declared for the conference audience Mr. Cătălin Costache, director of European Funds Accesion Unit, from the Romanian Ministry of Transport.

With the occasion of the event the tools developed during the TRANSGREEN project were launched. These tools bring a 360° approach to sustainable road-building and planning - technical, scientific and legislative - from the perspective of biodiversity conservation and respecting wildlife connectivity. Our next newsletter will focus on this set of innovative tools which are now accessible to you.

The TRANSGREEN Conference brought together the main actors in sustainable infrastructure planning from the Carpathian region and beyond - as in the afternoon an exchange took place on the topic of connectivity, between representatives from several mountain regions: Alpine, Carpathian, Caucasian regions and the Pyrenees.

You can read the detailed TRANSGREEN Conference report at this link. You can also connect with the atmosphere of the event by watching this photo slideshow.