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 - A Brown bear makes a stop in Miskolc, Hungary, during its travels
- 19-11-2020
What cheese do you use to get a bear out of a tree? - a 'Come-on-bear'! Probably not the best joke you have ever heard, but please bear with me. While using smelly French cheese to lure a bear out of a tree should definitely stay in the fictional...
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ConnectGREEN - Identifying core areas and ecological corridors for large carnivores in the Carpathians
- 12-11-2020
The ConnectGREEN project aims to maintain and improve the ecological connectivity in the Carpathians. This is a highly complex task that requires good planning and cooperative management across the entire mountain range. A crucial element to such...
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ConnectGREEN - National workshop with Romanian spatial planners and environmentalists
- 03-11-2020
October 26, 2020. Romania. A virtual workshop was organized by INCD URBAN-INCERC together with WWF Romania on the topic of harmonizing spatial development interests with ecological ones by implementing ecological corridors in urban planning and...
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ConnectGREEN - New arrivals: wolf cubs in Slovakia
- 30-10-2020
At the Slovak - Czech border, conservationists celebrate the presence of the first wolf cubs. A success story made possible by the remaining migration corridors. 'Wolves began to return to the Czech Republic in the 1990s, first to the...
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ConnectGREEN - MIKSER Festival 2020 in Serbia - ConnectGREEN presented
- 20-10-2020
The eleventh edition of the Mikser Festival was held on October 8 and 9, 2020, under the slogan OXYGEN, in a unique festival ambience of the ethno household "Zornića kuća" near Belgrade. The Mikser Festival, well known all over...
