18-19 December 2018. Vienna, Austria. ConnectGREEN project was introduced to the participants at the 9th meeting of the Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee (CCIC) that took place on 18-19 December just before the holiday season.

The presentation was made by Mrs. Hildegard Meyer, who underlined the importance of continuing work on  ecological connectivity in the Carpathian region through this new project that complements and builds on the TRANSGREEN project, that will end this year. ”While TRANSGREEN is looking more into linear transportation infrastructure development in relation to nature conservation, ConnectGREEN will extend to spatial planning and regional development to keep wildlife corridors open or restore them between protected areas”, stated Mrs Meyer.

The conference offered a context for member states to look back at the latest work in the region and to look forward to the next steps. Both ConnectGREEN and TRANSGREEN projects, that are focused on connectivity improvement solutions for wildlife in the Carpathian region, were mentioned as flagship projects for supporting the implementation of the Carpathian Convention.. ConnectGREEN will engage the Carpathian Convention Working Groups on Biodiversity and Spatial Planning in the development of a Carpathian wide Strategy for maintaining and restoring ecological corridors which will be one of the most important outputs of the project.