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 |
| CEEweb for Biodiversity | ERDF partner | zolyomi@ceeweb.org | HUNGARY |
Project News
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ConnectGREEN - Identifying ecological corridors - new methodology introduced to key stakeholders in the Czech Republic
- 13-03-2019
Incorporating significant migration areas for wildlife into the spatial plans is crucial for a better protection of large mammals, as well as for reducing the human-wildlife conflicts. This was one of the main premises of the first national...
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ConnectGREEN - Identification of ecological corridors, a subject of big interest for the stakeholders in Serbia
- 08-02-2019
Valuable knowledge and experience were exchanged by the participants at the first national workshop in Serbia under the project ConnectGREEN dedicated to the review of Draft Carpathian methodology for identifying key areas and ecological...
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ConnectGREEN - The future methodology for identifying ecological corridors in Carpathians is taking shape
- 24-01-2019
Since the beginning of ConnectGREEN project implementation, the project partners have been cooperating intensively to develop a harmonized methodology for identifying ecological corridors in Carpathians and are currently revising the 1st draft....
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ConnectGREEN - Safe ecological corridors must urgently be established as wolves are at once both protected and hunted
- 14-01-2019
Wolf hunting season in Slovakia lasts from November 1 until January 15. Hunting wolves is prohibited in NATURA 2000 protected areas, but if the animals cross the boundaries of these zones, the law allows them to be killed. The problem is that...
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ConnectGREEN - A first introduction to the Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee
- 09-01-2019
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...
