Exchange and experience on ecological connectivity in the Carpathians

// Ján KADLEČÍK //

State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic, Banskà Bystrica, Slovak Republic

The Carpathian Mountains extend across seven countries of central and south-eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine) and can be considered a relatively well preserved region with rich and unique natural and cultural diversity and connectivity of ecosystems. The rapid development of the region during the last few decades has increased landscape fragmentation, limit-ing dispersal and the genetic exchange of wildlife (Köck et al., 2014).

Ensuring continuity and connectivity of habitats and species, cooperation of contracting parties in

developing an ecological network in the Carpathian Mountains and protection of migration routes are among the key principles of the Framework Conven-tion on the ProtecConven-tion and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians (Carpathian Convention). These principles are transferred into relevant articles of the Convention and its thematic protocols, including the Protocol on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Bio-logical and Landscape Diversity, or the Protocol on Sustainable Transport. The Carpathian Convention is a sister convention to the Alpine Convention, using its experience and expertise of institutions involved. Col-laboration in the field of ecological connectivity is also

This green bridge across the Vienna-Bratislava motorway in Austria is one of the measures implemented within the framework of the “Alps-Carpathians Corridor” project to re-connect the eastern reaches of the Alps to the Western Carpathians.

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included in the Memorandum of Understanding for the cooperation between the Alpine Convention and the Carpathian Convention signed between the Sec-retariats of both Conventions. For implementation of these principles several projects have been developed and implemented in particular during the last decade.

Important steps towards maintenance and devel-opment of suitable landscape structures, building of green bridges and land use plans in the space between the Alps and the Carpathians were projects supporting the Alpine-Carpathian corridor (AKK) implemented between 2008 and 2013.

The aim of the AKK projects was to safeguard the ecological connectivity between the Alps and the Car-pathians within the CENTROPE region. The projects strengthened conservation management for the pro-tected areas along the Alpine-Carpathian Corridor and neighbouring habitats. The strategy was to secure migration and genetic exchange among wildlife popu-lations through the construction of several eco-ducts (green bridges) over motorways in Austria and Slovakia and through the creation of suitable habitat patches or stepping-stones for migrating animals and through increased public awareness.

A cross-border action plan with a comprehensive com-pilation of necessary actions to preserve and re-estab-lish ecological networks has since been elaborated. It now creates the framework for joint implementation of proposed measures along the Alpine-Carpathian corri-dor up to 2022 in both countries. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in January 2012 between the respective ministries, regional authorities and highway companies of Austria and Slovakia expressing strong political commitment towards safeguarding the cor-ridor. By 2014, the project on extension of the Alpine-Carpathian Corridor following the original AKK Basic and CENTROPE projects was aimed at safeguarding the corridor and the connection to the core area of the Carpathians in the area where intensification of agri-culture, increasing land use for settlements and com-merce in combination with the highway in Slovakia were assessed as causes for lack of connectivity (Alpine-Carpathian Corridor Project, 2016).

“Integrated management of biological and landscape diversity for sustainable regional development and ecological connectivity in the Carpathians” (BioREGIO

Carpathians) is another good example of useful ex-change between the Alps and the Carpathians.

The project (implemented from 2011 to 2014) facili-tated communication and discussion of experience of the Alpine countries through the project partner (EU-RAC Research) and several exchange workshops. In this project the analysis of connectivity in the Carpathians was carried out based on GIS model and completed by site visits in pilot areas (Köck et al., 2014). The Habitat Suitability Model was used, applying the ArcGIS 10.0 tool Corridor Designer, allowing the assessment of habitat quality for selected species. This model serves as basic layer on which the most probable corridors (least-cost paths) for species migration were identified. Once the suitability model was created, those areas having the highest suitability and certain ecological character-istics were selected as core areas (best habitat patches with the highest probability of occurrence). Then the most probable paths for wildlife dispersal were identi-fied using ArcGIS 10.0 tool Linkage Mapper. The tool identified adjacent core areas and created maps of least-cost corridors between them. The result of the application of these tools is a network of least-cost paths. The resulting value of each grid cell expresses the level of connectivity between core areas and indicates which routes encounter more or fewer features that facilitate or impede dispersal for the umbrella species in the study area. In the project the analysis was made for several species, including Eurasian lynx, grey wolf, brown bear, Eurasian otter, western capercaillie, cham-ois and European hare. Habitat suitability models were produced for all of these species. The basic approach underpinning this study was based on the assumption that, in contrast to the Alps, ecological connectivity still exists in the Carpathians, and the project had to iden-tify the migratory paths, which ought be protected.

Besides the physical barriers, economic and social aspects –which also represent potentials and barri-ers – were analysed in the Carpathians based on rapid social and economic transformation processes in the last 20 years. For the analysis, an “on field” approach was chosen, combining interviews with researchers and professionals working in the Carpathians. The analysis highlighted the fact that various economic sectors affect ecological connectivity. As a result, it be came obvious that development of plans for pro-motion of ecological connectivity and the prevention and avoidance of human wildlife conflicts are primary objectives in strategies to reduce social and economic barriers. These conflicts mostly result from a lack of

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coordination, planning and monitoring of the co-existence between human activities and wildlife. Four main objectives were identified to modulate economic and social activities:

1. Planning: The concept of ecological connectivity should already be considered in the planning phase – particularly for new transportation infrastructure or urban expansion, but also for the extension of agriculture or forestry activities. The availability of subsidies offers support for connectivity-friendly measures in these fields and could support a pre-ventive approach to reduce conflicts between hu-mans and wildlife.

2. Intervention: A quick and clear response in case of an emergency resulting from the interaction between human activities and wildlife can have a positive impact on the attitude of citizens towards ecological connectivity.

3. Awareness: It is crucial to raise the awareness among all relevant stakeholders, mainly of those involved in infrastructure planning, urban expan-sion and policy development at different levels.

4. Monitoring: The analysis has shown the potential in strengthening data collection at the Carpathian level and in involving local population for the monitoring of wildlife presence, applying a sim-pler, clearly structured and efficient reporting sys-tem of damages.

Infrastructures should be well integrated into existing ecological structures like stepping stones and linear corridors. There is opportunity to redesign the roads

Source: BioREGIO Carpathians WebGIS

// Map 3: Species analysis: Habitat Suitability Model for different species in the Carpathians

Landscape suitability for wolf with least cost path options

and core areas Landscape suitability for otter

(general)

Densely urbanised landscape in the region located between Vienna and Bratislava. As a part of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), the Alps-Carpathian-Corridor is being restored to support ecological connectivity and the sustainable development of the whole region.

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to provide safe passage for all, to reduce the costs and to tailor each type of crossing to the specific species in each of the various landscape contexts. This implies a continuous monitoring of the wildlife species present in a certain area. The provision of crossing infrastructure at key points along transportation corridors should be cou-pled with a large campaign of environmental awareness to emphasise the fact that the best prevention system is always a correct driving behaviour.

Alpine experts were involved in consultation processes in the Carpathians and exchange of experience of the Alpine countries from projects on ecological networks helped to formulate measures for the Carpathian re-gion. In order to continue cooperation and exchange, new proposals for follow up projects supporting im-plementation of measures concerning improvement of ecological connectivity in the Carpathian region and between the Alps and the Carpathians have been devel-oped together with partners from Alpine countries. The aim of these projects is to address the increasing habi-tat fragmenhabi-tation and biodiversity loss and to improve the restoration and management of mountain ecologi-cal corridors, including threatened wetland habitats of transnational relevance in the region.

There is still the necessity to identify critical moun-tain ecological corridors for flagship species in the Carpathians, to strengthen the knowledge base and to collect data and information with regard to green infrastructure development. To this end, an improved integration of ecological corridors and wetland habi-tats in spatial development processes and infrastruc-ture planning needs to be realised. There are some examples of severe conflicts between transport infra-structure plans and nature conservation interests as well as EU directives in the Carpathian countries lead-ing to lengthy delays for construction projects. There-fore, integrated transport planning is necessary. The Protocol on Sustainable Transport to the Carpathian Convention calls for guidance and action planning to secure its implementation. Building on significant experience and knowledge of previous and ongoing projects in the Alps and the Carpathians, cooperation can help in achieving a safer and biodiversity-friendly road and railroad network by improving planning frameworks and developing concrete solutions. An interdisciplinary approach involving planners, econo-mists, engineers and landscape architects provides the necessary knowledge and inter-sectorial dialogue (WWF DCP, 2015).

Landscape suitability for capercaillie (general) Landscape suitability for bears during summer months with least cost path options

0 100 bear(summer)-corareas

bear(summer)-least cost path

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Ecological connectivity has become a cornerstone of conservation science and practice. Since the intro-duction of wildlife corridors as a game management strategy in the early 20^th century, followed by the rec-ognition of connectivity as a fundamental element of landscape structure in the 1990’s, well over 1,000 sci-entific papers on corridors and connectivity have been published in the fields of biodiversity conservation and ecology. During this time, habitat loss and fragmenta-tion have widely been agreed to constitute the single greatest threat to biodiversity worldwide, and climate change is expected to exacerbate these effects, as spe-cies’ ranges must shift across fragmented landscapes to track suitable conditions. Although protected areas such as national parks have long been the primary fo-cus of conservation, it is now widely understood that isolated reserves will not be sufficient to sustain some species and communities in the face of these combined threats. Land use modification around protected areas has reduced their ecological function via a range of mechanisms linking them to the degraded ecosystems that surround them, and specific climate envelopes for many species currently supported by reserves are ex-pected to shift beyond reserve boundaries.

Corridors are intended to mitigate the effects of land use and climate change by facilitating movement of individ-uals among patchy resources and among populations, providing buffering effects from local extinction proc-esses, supporting gene flow and thus genetic diversity, maintaining ecological processes such as migration, and enabling species and ecological community adaptation in response to climate change. Conservation strategies that maintain biodiversity in human-modified land-scapes beyond protected area borders, particularly those aiming to maintain or restore connectivity between remaining habitat patches, are now considered critical in the face of future landscape change.

The conceptual underpinnings of corridors and con-nectivity have progressed tremendously over the past decades. In 1991, corridors were defined simply as linear landscape elements facilitating movement among habitat patches. Early corridor studies focused on monitoring wildlife use of de facto corridors such as

1.8 Ecological connectivity and large scale conservation – A