The aim of the meeting was to look back on the achievements and overall performance of the past 1,5 years of Centralparks, as well as to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of the project. This was a chance for the partnership to receive feedback from the Joint Secretariat about how to improve the planning, appraisal and implementation of project activities.

The mid-term review meeting was very valuable to draw initial lessons about project implementation and management, and to harmonise the project objectives. Every work package leader have presented their progress, reflected on challenges, and discussed planned activities together with the rest of the participants. This way, the meeting helped the partners in identifying and understanding in-depth the successes to date and problems that may arise in the next year, with special attention to the still very present Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the event created the opportunity to provide the Centralparks Associated Partners with an external, objective view on the project status, its relevance, the effectiveness of its management, technical implementation and communication, and indication of whether the project is likely to achieve its objectives.

The meeting was also a good platform for the attendees outside the project consortium to provide to the Centralparks partners some recommendations for capturing additional opportunities, as well as for measures to overall improve the project performance for the remainder of the project duration.

The participants also touched on the subject of how to replicate the lessons learnt from project implementation to the the broader policy environment. Moreover, the deviations that have occurred in Centralparks’ work plan due to the Covid-19 outbreak have been discussed and various mitigation measures have been taken into consideration. Overall, the meeting was very fruitful, and the Centralparks team achieved great success in keeping the collaboration effective and strong over distance.

The post Mid-term evaluation and last partner meeting of the year appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

Interreg: focus on nature

The multinational nature of Interreg is one of its defining characteristics. Interreg is formed around three types of multinational cooperation: cross-border, transnational and interregional. Over time, the Interreg programme has increased its funding of transnational activities concerned with environmental protection.

In the current Interreg V programme, the EU has set aside €581 million of investment for nature and biodiversity. Interreg funding is available for the transboundary protection and restoration of biodiversity and soil, as well as the promotion of ecosystems services. Numerous projects have, in this vein, helped achieve these targets through supporting Natura 2000 sites and promoting green infrastructure.

The success stories from Natura 2000 in retaining Europe’s biodiversity would not be possible without Interreg’s contributions. Many Interreg projects, like Centralparks, are multidisciplinary in nature. This subsequently helps link Natura 2000 to socio-economic issues, through a cross-border and cross-sectoral exchange of knowledge and practices.

What is Natura 2000?

Natura 2000 is referred to as a network of protected areas in Europe. Essentially, it is a combination of protected areas laid out in the EU’s Birds and Habitats Directives. The Birds Directive aims to protect all wild bird species found in the EU through the designation of Special Protection Areas. Furthermore, the Habitats Directive protects ‘rare, threatened or endemic animal and plant species’, and around ‘200 rare and characteristic habitats’ in their own right. This covers many habitats, from marine wetlands to Alpine meadows. In total, there are over 27 000 Natura 2000 sites all across Europe, and Member States reassess the status of these areas and their protected species every 6 years. Above all, both of these directives protect vulnerable habitats and species, regardless of their geographical location in Europe.

The benefits of Natura 2000 are wide-ranging. In addition to focusing on the species and habitats outlined in the directives, Natura 2000 sites provide safe areas for numerous other others animals and plants, ensuring a healthier ecosystem on the whole. With a healthier ecosystem, humans also benefit. Natura 2000 sites help increase the security of vital ecosystems services such as drinking water provision, flood protection, temperature regulation, and food provision. When estimating the worth of the Natura 2000 sites all together, scientists have come up with a figure of between, €200 to €300 billion per year. This outlines the importance of Natura 2000, not just to nature, but to human livelihoods as well.

The role of Centralparks

Many protected areas targeted by Centralparks are part of Natura 2000. Centralparks adopts a strategic approach to their management, working across the whole Carpathian region.

Centralparks draws experience from partners across multiple sectors, including the Piatra Craiului National Park Administration and Danube-Ipoly National Park Directorate. These two project partners manage numerous Natura 2000 sites in Romania and Hungary respectively. In addition to their expertise, partners from academia, the state and the non-governmental sector also contribute their knowledge to enhance the livelihoods of local communities through biodiversity conservation and the improvement of protected area management, including Natura 2000 site management.

Lasting impacts

Currently, Interreg works to enhance the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 sites. Its focus on management, planning and restoration through cross-border and regional cooperation has benefited Natura 2000 sites in this respect. Despite the many good practices that originate from Interreg projects, they are sometimes not well known outside the Interreg community.

While Centralparks helps promote Natura 2000 management through a perspective that encompasses wider socio-economic issues by including cross-border and cross-sectoral experience and practice exchanges, it also ensures a long lasting impact of these efforts. By ensuring that the Carpathian Convention endorses any strategies and recommendations made by the project, it makes sure of the project’s long-term implementation and the transferability of its best practices to other parts of the Carpathian region, which include Natura 2000 sites.

The post Interreg boosts biodiversity and Natura 2000 sites across the EU appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

The realities of climate change

Current projections show that the Carpathian region will begin to experience increasingly irregular rainfall and a generally warmer climate. Scientists from Eurac Research expect a rise in temperature of around 3.0-4.5 ̊C by the end of the current century. Consequently, these changes will have a profound impact on both the human and natural elements of the Carpathian region.

Primeval forests and grasslands which make the Carpathians so unique will be negatively impacted by climate change. In turn, this will affect biodiverse rich areas which support large carnivores like bears, lynx and wolves. Climate change will also impact ecosystem services in the region. For instance, the freshwater that flows into the Danube, Dniester and Vistula from the Carpathians, will change due to climate change, potentially impacting an area much larger than the immediate Carpathian region. Unless the region adopts mitigation and adaptation measures, climate change will have a major impact on the environment, economy and human well-being in the Carpathian Mountains.

Impact on livelihoods

In the Carpathian region, there are two sectors whose fates are very much connected with climate change. The tourism and agricultural sectors are at risk from the adverse effects of climate change and these two industries support many livelihoods in the region. A warming climate, especially in winter, has already impacted the tourism industry. Periods of snowfall have shortened and the snow line is now at a higher elevation. This has not only reduced revenue for organisations that are reliant on winter tourism, but also changed the seasonal scenery expected by tourists during the winter months.  

On the other hand, the warming climate provides the agricultural sector a longer growing season. While the season will be able to start earlier, this is not necessarily good news. An earlier snowmelt results in reduced discharge and drinking water supplies in the summer, leading to increased risk of drought. Subsequently, wildfires will become more common and agricultural pests will pose a higher risk. Extreme patterns of rainfall will also result in more flooding, erosion and landslides, affecting settlements, farmland and other productive land.

Most importantly, if those in the area take no adaptation measures to combat these effects, then the region could suffer greatly. Economic and livelihood losses will be compounded by a loss of species and reduced ecosystem functioning. This ends up creating a vicious circle of socio-ecological degradation.

Impact on ecosystems services

Climate change impacts the whole ecosystem and can result in a series of cascading effects if adaptation is not pursued. Key parts of the ecosystem that may be affected include the region’s hydrology, forestry and biodiversity.

When looking at the hydrological system, the aforementioned landslides impact the land’s ability to retain water. Subsequently, this has a significant impact on other parts of the ecosystem as well. A reduced ability to retain water negatively impacts the provision of water for agriculture and other purposes.

Climate change may lead to a greater threat of pests and diseases affecting trees, which could devastate the forestry industry. Forests are also at greater risk to fires under a warming climate. The relevant authorities and foresters need to appropriately manage this threat, so as to not cause extensive disruption to the ecosystem and sector. Moreover, climate change will force management priorities to change in this area towards a greater focus on bioenergy.

Related to forestry is the issue of biodiversity. Climate change will lead to an increased fragmentation of habitats and open the door to invasive species. This will reduce the ability of ecosystems to respond to the changing climate, ultimately resulting in a loss of species. As a result, reduced biodiversity will lead to negative impacts on ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, pest control and pollination.

Evidently, nature is an interconnected system and knock-on effects have the ability to impact the whole system for the worse. In order to avoid such impacts, stakeholders should adopt a management approach with an outlook oriented towards the future challenges posed by climate change. The Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit, developed within Centralparks will be able to provide comprehensive information to policymakers and management practitioners regarding the costs and benefits in environmental management decisions.

Science-based adaptation measures

One underlying conclusion of this report was the need for a science-based informed decision making regarding the future management of the Carpathian region. Improved data collection and information availability about local mountain specific impacts will play key roles in targeting climate change adaptation measures in sensitive areas like the Carpathians. An effective implementation of adaptation measures requires a concerted effort from all parties with a direct interest in the Carpathians.

Currently, the Carpathian Convention is the primary force behind coordinating supranational efforts in the region. Creating a region resilient in the face of the threats posed by climate change requires increased regional cooperation. As it already forms a key mechanism for cross-border cooperation, the strengthening of the Carpathian Convention’s mandate, such as through harmonising the efforts of the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas, will build on the foundation already there. Climate change adaptation can be more successfully implemented when such action is taken, increasing regional cooperation and coordination. This also has a positive impact on maintaining biodiversity and ecosystems services as a strengthened mandate for the Carpathian Convention will also lead to cooperation through other institutions too, such as the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River, which will help improve the overall health of the region’s hydrology in the face of the challenges posed by climate change.

Harmonisation of policies

There is generally less funding in Ukraine and Serbia, the two non-EU signatories to the Carpathian Convention, resulting in a lack of uniformity in management approaches across the region. Owing to better structured policy frameworks, the EU member state signatories to the Carpathian Convention have made similar strides in adaptation, thanks to the harmonisation of laws and guidelines through the EU. However, this also needs to include Ukraine and Serbia to in order to maximise the effectiveness of adaptation measures. 

Future policies in the region must be harmonised in order to prepare for adaptation to future changes. On the topic of biodiversity, stakeholders from the different countries should aim for further cooperation. This will help create ecological networks and corridors to allow for the migration of species under climate change. As such, Centralparks works closely together with Carpathian experts to harmonise biodiversity protection and sustainable development, through the development of several expert policy support documents.

Monitoring activities also require standardisation in order to maximise the potential of science based decision making. By standardising indicators and monitoring systems, it allows for easy comparability of data from across the whole region. In turn, this helps facilitate more efficient adaptation planning. A particular prevalent example that the report proposes is that of the harmonising forest monitoring systems. Centralparks brings forward a new approach for habitat management planning. During the project, a forest state assessment methodology will be introduced as an innovative technique to serve multi-aspect and small-scale multiple evaluation of forests.

Involving all

Integrating rigorous science into decision-making is only one part of the puzzle. If there is no support from stakeholders then it could make these efforts to pursue adaptation measures futile. Therefore, increasing awareness regarding climate change adaption amongst stakeholders is crucial. This will allow them to acquaint themselves with the challenges ahead and the potential methods to tackle them. Subsequently, this will help ensure the active participation of all stakeholders in decision making, allowing for adaptation at multiple levels.

The Carpathian Mountains faces a grave threat from climate change, to both its cultural, natural and economic value. However, if decision-makers made right moves to strengthen the area’s resilience now, the region can adapt to climate change and mitigate the worst of its effects.

The post Centralparks contributes to climate change adaptation in the Carpathian Mountains appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

The overall objective of the virtual gathering was to harmonize activities related to the CNPA, with special attention to the two ongoing projects sponsored by the European Commission, as well as the recent outcomes of the COP6. 

The meeting was moderated by the interim chair of the Steering Committee of the CNPA, Mircea Verghelet, Director of the Piatra Craiului National Park in Romania. Opening remarks were made by Bożena Haczek, Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment, on behalf of Poland, holding the new Presidency of the Carpathian Convention. She expressed her gratitude to the Carpathian Convention Secretariat as well as the Centralparks and ConnectGREEN projects for supporting this meeting. It is the first Carpathian meeting within the Polish presidency after the successful COP6.

Furthermore, Mr. Harald Egerer on behalf of UNEP Vienna-Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention highlighted the important role of CNPA within the Carpathian region and the opportunity raised by the Centralparks and ConnectGREEN projects. He welcomed the nominated Steering Committee members and thanked them for their participation. The meeting provided the opportunity for a round of introductions by the new and already confirmed steering committee members, representing all Carpathian countries. Moreover, the projects Centralparks and ConnectGREEN were presented to identify the opportunities of support. 

Jointly for the future of the Carpathians

Looking into the outcomes of the COP6, the CNPA has important tasks ahead in the field of biodiversity protection in the Carpathians but also on a global scale, contributing to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Therefore, it is a priority to activate and fully realise the CNPA, to connect the institutional with the ecological networks and to work towards achieving that the CNPA becomes a new and leading example of a fruitful network of protected areas not just in Europe but all around the world. 

Next year will be an important one for the CNPA. Upcoming activities include a second roundtable meeting of the CNPA Steering Committee within the 6^th Forum Carpaticum, planned to be held in Brno, Czech Republic on 21-25 of June 2021 and the CNPA Conference organised within the ConnectGREEN final conference, to be held in Visegrád, Hungary, on 28-30 of September 2021. The Steering Committee also formulated its intention to intensify the cooperation between the Alpine, Danube and Carpathian regions, based on the Memorandum of Cooperation between the three networks ALPARC, DANUBEPARKS and the CNPA.

It was a very informative meeting providing a lot of inspiration to the Centralparks partners, encouraging us to continue with our efforts to contribute to a more sustainable Carpathian future.

The post Carpathian Network of Protected Areas Steering Committee roundtable meeting: intensifying Carpathian cooperation appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

Carpathian roundtable meeting: progress and future plans

Centralparks is supporting the Carpathian Network of Protected Area’s endeavours in creating a more sustainable Carpathian region. The Steering Committee aims at supervising the work of the CNPA, assessing the progress and addressing the challenges the network might face. Supported by the ongoing Carpathian Interreg projects Centralparks and ConnectGREEN, the Steering Committee of the CNPA is conducting its next roundtable meeting, in online format, to discuss:

• Relevant outcomes of the recent COP6 of the Carpathian Convention related to CNPA work and activities 
• The strengthening of the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas and its Steering Committee’s work in achieving biodiversity objectives
• The uptake of the results from the Centralparks and ConnectGREEN projects
• The organisation of upcoming CNPA events
• The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
• The Carpathian Convention‘s and CNPA’s role in and contribution to the post-2020 process 

The general aims of the CNPA 

The CNPA aims to promote sustainable development and conservation in the Carpathian area. By creating linkages between protected areas in the Carpathian Mountains, the CNPA consequently supports the implementation of the Carpathian Convention. The CNPA also plays a role in representing the protected areas’ needs regarding national, regional and international organisations and authorities. As a result, this approach ensures the protection of the Carpathians’ unique nature and culture at all governance levels. 

In the face of rising threats to the Carpathian Mountains, above all caused by human interventions leading to habitat fragmentation, the CNPA aims to enhance the protection of the entire biogeographical region by facilitating cross-border cooperation. The CNPA can subsequently boost conservation activities in the region and ensure greater ecological connectivity in the Carpathians. Correspondingly, the CNPA’s existing thematic and ecological networks, as well as its awareness raising activities, can contribute greatly to achieve these goals. 

The post Upcoming meeting of the Steering Committee of the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

This year at COP6, the 3-year Presidency of the Carpathian Convention will be handed over from Hungary to Poland. COP6 will create a platform to review the status of the implementation of the Carpathian Convention and will focus on harmonizing and strengthening sustainable development in the Carpathian region. 

11th meeting of the Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee

To prepare for this conference, the Carpathian Convention Secretariat organized the 11^th meeting of the Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee (CCIC). It was held on 8^th of October in online format. During this meeting, fruitful discussions and idea exchanges were summarized in the draft COP6 Decisions document. This document contains information on what the Carpathian Convention is seeking to achieve in the next years, what measures should they implement and what examples to use. 

We are very delighted that Centralparks has been endorsed in the Decisions Draft, and called to make significant contributions to the protection of natural and cultural heritage of the Carpathians in two different categories: Conservation and sustainable use of biological and landscape diversity and Sustainable tourism. Regarding the conservation and sustainable use of biological and landscape diversity, Centralparks gives considerable support to the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (CNPA) activities, encourages CNPA and WG Biodiversity. Regarding sustainable tourism, the Carpathian Convention Implementation Committee takes note of the activities of the Centralparks project, especially the Strategy for Local Sustainable Tourism Development based on natural and cultural heritage of the Carpathians. The Secretariat encouraged the parties to contribute to and use the results of the Centralparks project accordingly. This is a great honour to the partners of Centralparks, highlighting the importance of our work. 

The post 6th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Carpathian Convention appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

The webinar, organised jointly by the Interreg DaRe to Connect (D2C) project, the Ekopolis Foundation and the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic focused on ecological connectivity and introducing the basic principles of the management of ecological corridors. Moreover, it aimed at discussing its application in land use management and decision-making processes with special attention to Slovakia.

Although the discussion was originally planned physically, the online platform enabled almost 50 participants to attend, including representatives of state administration, municipalities, regions, ministries and other public institutions, who are authorised to make decisions about land use and are approving activities that influence animals migration and ecological connectivity. Furthermore, various Slovak experts in landscape ecology, landscape and municipal zoning and ecology were present.

The webinar mainly targeted the geographical space between the Green Belt and the Small Carpathians Hills, which is one of pilot regions of the D2C project. The lineup of projects presented were DaRE to Connect, Centralparks, ConnectGREEN and TransGREEN, which were also the main organisers of the recently held Green Carpathians webinar.

Presentations were followed by lively discussions, moreover, the success of the webinar inspired participants to agree on organising follow-up online and offline consultations targeting the specific geographical regions.

The post Centralparks at the DaRe to Connect webinar appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

The keynote presentation was held by Harald Egerer, Head of UNEP Vienna office Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, who welcomed all speakers and participants of the webinar, and introduced the biodiversity hub and of the Danube-Carpathian region. He also gave an insight into the policy framework of the Carpathians and its integration with the EU Policy framework.

The second presentation, conducted by Gabriella Nagy from CEEweb for Biodiversity, concentrated on the introduction of the ConnectGREEN project, focusing on ecological corridors mapping and management, and spatial planning in the Danube-Carpathian region. Next, Isidoro De Bortoli, project coordinator from Eurac Research and project manager of Centralparks presented the Centralparks project and potential opportunities and role of the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas in the project. Following, Hildegard Meyer, project coordinator from WWF Central and Eastern Europe gave a presentation of the TransGREEN and SaveGREEN projects, the issue of habitat fragmentation and the importance these projects in ensuring Carpathian connectivity. Last but not least, Roselina Stoeva from WWF Bulgaria and project manager of the recently started LIFE SwiPE project introduced the importance of increasing the effectiveness of wildlife crime prosecution across Europe.

The webinar was moderated by Irene Lucius, Regional Conservation Director of WWF Central and Eastern Europe. The rich agenda covered biodiversity protection in the Danube-Carpathian region from a variety of perspectives, and featured and interesting exchange with participants. It created an opportunity to learn more about the natural values of the Carpathians and the main threats to their biodiversity, provided a platform to be inspired by previous initiatives and go into fruitful discussions about tasks for the near future.

Download the presentations and watch the recording below:

The post Successful webinar on transnational aims to protect Carpathian biodiversity appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

This webinar will be focusing on transnational cooperations to address the biggest threats to the biodiversity of the Carpathian Mountains. Participants will learn more about the most ambitious Carpathian projects focusing on the protection of Carpathian biodiversity, including the Interreg projects TransGREEN, Centralparks and ConnectGREEN, as well as the recently launched Interreg SaveGREEN and LIFE SwiPE.

The webinar will be held in English over the Zoom platform. Don’t miss out, register here (registration is mandatory for this webinar)!

You can download the invitation and agenda here:

The post Webinar about the Green Carpathians on 25 September appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.

On the 28^th of July 2020, the Centralparks and CEETO project team representatives held an online synergy meeting. The meeting aimed to discuss outcomes of the CEETO project, to share experiences about tourism in and around protected areas and to search for possible meeting points for future cooperation.

CEETO stands for Central Europe Eco-Tourism: tools for nature protection. The project lasted from 01.06.2017 to 31.05.2020 and aimed at implementing an innovative governance system for tourism, based on a participatory planning approach. This helped to improve the managing capacities of protected areas managers. Moreover, CEETO aimed at identifying and testing innovative management and monitoring tools specifically focused on sustainable tourism activities. One of the most important outcomes of the project is eight action plans created for tourism development within the pilot protected areas. The outcomes of the pilot results were summarised into joint Guidelines for developing sustainable tourism in protected areas as well as a Manual for sustainable tourism governance for protected area managers. Moreover, the CEETO project aimed to capitalise common knowledge and set up the CEETO Network platform, which serves as a knowledge hub and exchange platform. 

Centralparks aims to integrate biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Carpathian region. The joint strategy for local sustainable tourism development based on the natural and cultural heritage of the Carpathians will be targeted at Carpathian protected area administrations, local communities as well as municipality authorities. The objective of this strategy is to re-conciliate and integrate nature protection with local socio-economic development and to raise support of local communities for the conservation of biological and landscape diversity in the Carpathians. Therefore, a joint meeting between representatives of Centralparks and CEETO provided a very valuable opportunity to identify synergies.

Common issues of both projects

Both the CEETO and Centralparks project target the same issues of biodiversity protection in touristic areas. Both projects are dealing with places exploited by unsustainable tourism, many disagreeing stakeholders and a lack of cross-regional and international cooperation, among others. The Centralparks team was delighted to have an opportunity to ask arising questions and learn from the experience of the CEETO project.

Fruitful discussion

During the meeting, many questions were discussed, mostly focusing on sustainable tourism development in and around protected areas, building international and local cooperation, stakeholder involvement and sharing project outcomes with the public. The Centralparks representatives are very thankful for the CEETO representatives’ time and efforts to discuss several relevant topics. The synergy meeting gave us many new ideas and questions for consideration and we will gladly keep in contact for future cooperation.  

For further information on the CEETO project, you can revisit the presentations of the Final conference here.

The post Online Centralparks and CEETO synergy meeting appeared first on Interreg Centralparks.