ConnectGREEN Restoring and managing ecological corridors in mountains as the green infrastructure in the Danube basin
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
- 31-05-2021
- 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
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 - An eco-corridor into the Carpathian Convention
- 17-12-2019
Budapest, Hungary. 11-13 December 2019. Winter might be a freezing season, but not so enough to freeze the operations of the ConnectGREEN project, funded by Interreg DTP. Thus, between 11 and 13 December, representatives from the project attended...
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ConnectGREEN - Expert in large mammals on Serbia's journey towards establishing an ecological network
- 25-11-2019
November 25th 2019. Serbia. In an interview for ConnectGREEN, Mr. Vladan Bjedov, expert in large mammals and ecological connectivity at the Institute for Nature Conservation of Serbia, discusses the status of the ecological network in his...
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ConnectGREEN - “Ecological connectivity” becomes a regular topic on national TV due to Serbian ConnectGREEN team
- 01-11-2019
November 1st, 2019. Belgrade, Serbia. The TV set of Serbian National Television (RTS 2) host a team of representatives of the ConnectGREEN project who are today’s guests of the “Edu Global” show. Mrs. Marina Nenkovic-Riznic from IAUS (Institute...
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ConnectGREEN - Project introduced to Romania’s top planners at prestigious national conference on urban and territorial development
- 24-10-2019
October 24th 2019. Bucharest, Romania. ConnectGREEN project was introduced to highest-level decision-makers and specialists in urban and territorial development, with the occasion of the 16th edition of the prestigious national research...
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ConnectGREEN - Field Monitoring of Ecological Corridors is Under Preparation
- 15-10-2019
October 2019. South-Western Carpathians, Romania. Preparation for data collection from ecological corridors in Romania is in full operation, as WWF Romania’s field experts are actively testing monitoring tools in the field. We have already...
