News

In the framework of the project "Paths of life" the pilot region Isère signed a contract with the motorway company to build a green bridge. Work will start before the end of the year.

Inside the Parco delle Groane, a protected area that extends at the foot of the Alps nearby the city of Milan, it was implemented an underpass for amphibians and small fauna that allows this small wildlife to cross safely the road that split the park in two.

The Ecological Continuum Initiative organises a workshop to develop visions and to set the course for an assured continuation of projects beyond Econnect. The workshop will take place on November 17th 2010 in Bolzano/I.

Within the scope of the interregional Italian/Swiss programme, the "DIVERSICOLTURA - Biodiversity in the Cultural Landscape" project was recently approved. The project encompasses the Swiss Münstertal and the neighbouring Italian Obervinschgau. This area is part of the Econnect pilot region Rhaetian Triangle.

Important steps towards implementing connectivity measures in the course of Econnect have been made in the pilot region "Berchtesgaden - Salzburg". In order to analyse the connectivity of extensively cultivated grasslands in the region a set of butterfly and grasshopper species has been defined. Measures to improve the quality of certain grassland habitats will be planned and implemented subsequently.

Based on a pilot project of realizing trans-boundary ecological connectivity in the Ukrainian Carpathians a manual on stakeholder involvement and landscape-ecological modeling to connect protected areas has recently been published.

CIPRA sees itself as something of a networker. And this applies to nature conservation as well. It brings officials, local authorities and scientists together, regardless of national borders. After all, animal and plant migrations don’t stop at border barriers either.

The 5th official meeting of the Ecological Network Platform of the Alpine Convention was held in Dobbiaco/Toblach (I) on 21 April 2010. The main topic at the meeting was progress made to date in nominating a number of pioneering Alpine regions as Pilot Regions of the Alpine Convention. It is hoped that the first regions will receive official recognition at the next Alpine Conference to be held in March 2011.

Local connectivity projects can only be implemented if stakeholders are integrated into these activities. Potential difficulties and supportive tools were in the centre of an exchange of experiences between representatives of the ECONNECT pilot areas and other stakeholders carrying out connectivity activities. The discussions were facilitated by the Ecological Continuum Initiative in the frame of a workshop.

What significance do water management, tourism and agriculture have for ecological networks? Can measures in the transport sector have a positive effect for ecological corridors? How shall I design my garden to be a habitat for domestic plants and animals? These questions are answered by a series of eleven fact sheets provided by the Ecological Continuum Initiative.

The "GeoPortal" which is the central project repository for all spatial data and map products of ECONNECT is now online on http://gis.eurac.edu. Furthermore, the working group "Implementation strategy and data needs" has met to discuss the data situation at the current stage of the project.

How strongly is a river landscape fragmented? What are the most important barriers and obstacles in Alpine rivers? These questions are in the focus of the Institute of Ecology from University of Innsbruck within its ECONNECT activities. The results will be visualized with the help of GIS and contacts to regional watershed authorities established for the reduction of barrier impacts and restoration.

Entering the second year of the ECONNECT project, the activities on legal barriers (Work Package 6) are steadily progressing. The two major fields of action are at the moment a comparative analysis of the legal frameworks of ecological connectivity in the Alps and the analysis of the legal situation in the pilot regions.

The ECONNECT website www.econnectproject.eu has recently been translated into the four project languages (French, German, Italian and Slovenian) and will soon be updated with maps.

Extensively cultivated grasslands are important landscape elements for ecological connectivity in the pilot region Berchtesgaden - Salzburg. Improving these habitats will help to safeguard species such as butterflies, dragonflies or grasshoppers. This is one of the tasks of the subprojects within ECONNECT which are currently being finalised.

The Swiss National Park (SNP) is currently developing a web based tool to analyze barriers and corridors of the large pilot region Rhaetian Triangle. Furthermore, two local initiatives are concretely acting for the restoration of ecological connectivity. The new map application will allow comparing a freely defined area with other areas in the neighbourhood and identifying the fields with high need of action according to selected indices.

In the Italian Alpi Marittime Natural Park car crashes which involve ungulates are very common. In most cases those accidents, besides being hazardous for drivers' life, could have been avoided with a better territorial planning, a more careful infrastructure planning and a warier use of existing technologies. The Alpi Marittime natural park will make use of the new ways to help the passage for animals across busy roads, which have been tested in the Pilot region of Isère.

In the three provinces of Upper and Lower Austria and Styria interviews with 170 stakeholders were held. People were asked about their knowledge, experience and ideas concerning the connectivity of habitats and possible barriers by using a questionnaire. These interviews aimed at receiving an overview of opinions on this theme as well as information on planned or ongoing projects dealing with ecological connectivity in the region.

The French Isère Pilot Region is very active in the field of ecological connectivity. Besides ECONNECT, since February 2009 the region is engaged in another EU Project named "Paths of life". This project will last six years and has a budget of nine million Euro.

In future, wild animals will be able to move more easily between the Alps and the adjoining Carpathian Mountains. That is the objective of the recently initiated cross-border project Alpine-Carpathian Corridor. The EU is providing approximately 2 million Euros for it.