SaveGREEN: Safeguarding the functionality of transnationally important ecological corridors in the Danube basin
Many valuable ecological corridors of the Carpathian and other mountain ranges in the Danube region are impeded or threatened by economic development such as linear transport infrastructure construction or intensive agricultural, forestry, or water management practices. The reason for this conflict is that they are not sufficiently planned with the goal to maintain ecological connectivity and flow of multiple ecosystem services that these Green Infrastructure elements provide. Mitigation measures such as green bridges are often missing or dysfunctional because of inadequate design, location and inappropriate management of surrounding land use by e.g. agriculture or forestry. The impacts are traffic-kills and lowered reproductive success of key species dependent on functional corridors.
The project SaveGREEN aims to demonstrate ways of designing appropriate mitigation measures and maintaining or improving the functionality of ecological corridors through integrated planning. It thereby builds on key results of the DTP projects TRANSGREEN, ConnectGREEN, and HARMON. Monitoring the impact of such measures will help us to learn and derive proper recommendations for follow-up action and policy design. The focus of the project will be on critical ecological corridors of the Alpine-Carpathian Corridor, SW-Carpathians, Zakarpattia, Beskydy, Lyulin and Balkan mountains impacted by linear transport projects and unsustainable land use.
We will foster cross-sectoral collaboration, build capacity for replication of pilots and upscale results through improved policy frameworks. The project partnership covers key sectors to be involved in integrated planning of mitigation measures: nature conservation (ministries, agencies, authorities, NGOs), research and education (universities, research institution), transport (ministries, motorway companies) and consultancy business (limited company) and ASPs from complementary sectors from AT, BG, CZ, FR, GE, GR, HU, RO, SK and UA.
PILOT AREAS:
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Kobernausser forest in AT, last remnant ecological corridor connecting the Alps AT with the CZ Rep. cut off by a motorway;
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Pöttsching, the Alpine (AT)-Carpathian (SK) Corridor on the AT side;
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Beskydy-Kysuce CZ-SK cross-border area, connecting inner Carpathians and the periphery;
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Novohrad-Nógrád SK-HU cross-border area between South Slovakia and North Hungary bridging the North-South movement of large carnivores;
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Zakarpattia region in Ukraine connecting Romania and Slovakia;
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Mures valley (Arad- Deva), corridor area between Apuseni Mountains and the main Carpathian arch in Romania;
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Mures valley (Târgu Mureş - Târgu Neamţ), Eastern Carpathians in Romania;
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Rila-Verila-Kraishte corridor in Bulgaria connecting Bulgaria with Northern Macedonia and Serbia.
PROJECT PARTNERS:
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Austria: WWF Central and Eastern Europe, Environment Agency Austria
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Bulgaria: Black Sea NGO Network; Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation
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Czech Republic: Friends of the Earth, Olomouc branch; Transport Research Centre
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Hungary: CEEweb for Biodiversity; Szent Istvan University
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Romania: Zarand Association; EPC Environmental Consulting Ltd.; WWF Romania,
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Slovakia: WWF Slovakia; Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava - SPECTRA Centre of Excellence of EU
ASSOCIATED PARTNERS:
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Austria: Austrian Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology
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Bulgaria: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry- Executive Forest Agency; Southwestern State Enterprise SE – Blagoevgrad
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Czech Republic: Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic; Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic
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France: Infrastructure and Ecology Network Europe (IENE)
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Germany: Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection
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Greece: EGNATIA ODOS S.A.
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Hungary: NIF National Infrastructure Developing Private Company Limited; Ministry of Agriculture; Danube-Ipoly National Park Directorate
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Romania: Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests; Ministry of Public Works, Development and Administration; Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications
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Slovakia: State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic; Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic; National Motorway Company
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Ukraine: M.P. Shulgin State Road Research Institute State Enterprise – DerzhdorNDI SE; Department of Ecology and Nature Resources of Zakarpattia Oblast Administration
Start date - 01-07-2020
