Őrség National Park Directorate has started delineating its DaRe to Connect pilot area for improving ecological connectivity. As the first step of the process, experts of the Directorate and Nature Park Goričko carried out a workshop on 29. August 2018 to discuss their ideas and priorities regarding ecological connectivity between the two neighbouring protected areas.

It turned out that a number of key conservation target species are shared between the two parks and some of those are exactly threatened by the lack of connectivity between populations and the potential of recolonization of suitable habitats. Experts selected one butterfly, the marsh fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia) and two bird species, the scops owl (Otus scops) and the woodlark (Lullula arborea) on which they want to focus in the D2C pilot actions. As marsh fritillary has its strongholds in Őrség and the two birds in Goričko, the main objective of the project will be to elaborate a plan to create ecological corridors and stepping stones between populations on both sides of the border.

Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia), photo Márta Havas

Next goal is to find exactly where the border of the pilot are will be and how can we manage the habitat-linking for the above mentioned species.

As part of the workshop participants also visited some of the most important marsh fritillary habitats in Orfalu and Apátistvánfalva and discussed their management (photos by Gregor Domanjko):