Posted on April, 14 2020

10-11 March 2020 - The Carpathians are one of Europe's largest mountain ranges, a unique natural treasure of great beauty and ecological value, and home of the headwaters of major rivers. They also constitute a major ecological, economic, cultural, recreational and living environment in the heart of Europe, shared by numerous peoples and countries. The Carpathian Convention is actively involved in the preparation of the Post-2020 Biodiversity Strategy currently being developed under the lead of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
 
In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Carpathian Convention Working Groups on Biodiversity and Sustainable Transport, and the Steering Committee of the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (CNPA) moved online to push forward critical discussions related to the International Action Plan for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of the Carpathian Large Carnivores Population, as well as to the Strategy on the Identification, Conservation, Restoration, and Management of Ecological Corridors in the Carpathian Ecoregion led by the NGO CEEweb for Biodiversity. The Working Groups also discussed the advanced version of the Joint Strategic Action Plan 2021 – 2026 for the implementation of the Protocol on Sustainable Transport. This is a follow up of the TRANSGREEN Project, led by Eurac Research and WWF-CEE, in cooperation with the Carpathian Convention. It is the first cross-sectoral Action Plan calling for cooperative work between the fields of transport and nature conservation.
 
The Carpathian Convention is seen as a sub-regional framework for the implementation of the CBD and will become a leading example of a regional instrument for implementation of the new framework — especially in Europe — translating global targets and goals to the regional level. The Carpathian Convention represents a model of mainstreaming biodiversity into policy across borders, and highlights the importance of mountain biodiversity, such as large carnivores. 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 face the risk of being delayed due to non-conformity with safety and environmental standards. WWF-Romania and its partners, especially CEEweb for Biodiversity, reported on ConnectGREEN, EuroLargeCarnivores, and the Open Borders for Wildlife projects aimed to protect biodiversity and habitats, promote green infrastructure solutions, and identify and maintain ecological corridors in the Carpathians.
 
The Danube-Carpathian Region is one of Europe´s last remaining strongholds for the large carnivore species: grey wolf, Eurasian lynx and brown bear, all protected under EU law. Unfortunately, planned infrastructure developments threaten to cut through the movement corridors of large carnivores and increase the fragmentation of their habitats. Very few spatial planners have the knowledge and experience to ensure that conflicts between development and nature conservation are minimised 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. Since large carnivores frequently move across state borders in search of food and mates a coherent transnational approach is necessary. ConnectGREEN partners from various fields of activity (spatial planning, research, government, biodiversity conservation) have joined forces to increase the capacity for ecological corridor identification and management, overcome the conflict between infrastructure development and wildlife conservation, and to develop green infrastructure that better secures ecological connectivity in the Carpathians.
 
Another initiative is the Interreg Central Europe Project Centralparks, which is a partner project of ConnectGREEN. The project aims at improving biodiversity and landscape conservation measures in and outside of Carpathian protected areas. The synergy coming from both projects will result in the organisation of the Carpathian Protected Areas Conference, to be held in Visegrad, Hungary, on 20-22 April 2021.
 
This first online meeting was organised by CEEweb for Biodiversity with the help of WWF-CEE.
 
For more information:
Hildegard Meyer,
Project Manager,
WWF Central and Eastern Europe
hmeyer@wwfcee.org
Tel: +43 1 52 45 470 20 
 
ABOUT THE CARPATHIAN CONVENTION
The Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians (Carpathian Convention) signed by Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic and Ukraine entered into force in January 2006. It is the only multi-level governance mechanism covering the whole of the Carpathian area, and besides the Alpine Convention, only the second sub-regional treaty-based regime for the protection and sustainable development of a mountain region worldwide. The common vision is to pursue comprehensive policy and cooperation in order to guarantee protection and sustainable development of the Carpathians. The improvement of the quality of live, the strengthening of local economies and communities, and the conservation of natural values and cultural heritage should go hand in hand in the Carpathian area. The Convention provides a framework for cooperation and multi-sectoral policy coordination, a platform for joint strategies for sustainable development, and a forum for dialogue between all stakeholders involved – from the local community and various NGO’s (such as WWF and CEEweb for Biodiversity) up to the regional and national governments, institutions of the European Union and the United Nations.