The main goal of the project is to protect the Carpathian forest fauna refugia through determination and protection of existing ecological corridors ensuring maintenance of environmental cohesion for animal population and increasing the level of knowledge and awareness of the authorities, local people on the importance of ecological corridors i.e. their role and risks associated with the civilization development as well as wrong policies of human settlement expansion.
Main risk for the forest fauna being habitat for large and relatively compact forest complexes are deforestations and creation of anthropogenic barriers what is a reason for occurrence of more and more transformed, smaller and more isolated forest fragments which prevent the proper living of animal populations difficult. The area covered by the project is characterized by relatively compact forestation and by a low degree of forest district fragmentation. The areas situated directly close to the main Carpathian arc are characterized by low population density and concentration of hardened roads, however, in a larger scale anthropopression seems to be a key factor being a limitation for fauna population. The consequences of habitat fragmentation for species can be reduced by maintaining or restoring the connection between habitat patches, inhabited by these species, i.e. migration corridors.
Because of the fact that it is impossible to consider concurrently requirements of all species of the forest fauna for which the occurrence of the migration corridors is of special significance, their determination will be based on monitoring of some selected indication species with especially high habitat requirements (so called umbrella species), i.e. predators (wolfs, lynxes, bears), hoofed animals (red deer, wild boars, bison, elks) and predatory birds (Aquila pomarina).
The goals assumed for the project shall be achieved with scheduled actions including:
1. verification and valorization of ecological corridors and recommendation to make them subject to conservation
The 1st assignment consists of 3 stages:
- formulation of criteria necessary to determine ecological corridors and determination of all existing corridors in the project area;
- verification and valorization of the existing corridors in terms of their spatial significance and genetic stability for population and real possibility to perform conservation for a long period of time;
- identification of lands not owned by the Treasury within the assigned corridors, in order that the Treasury acquires/leases/compensates/exchanges them in the future.
2. informative-educational actions:
- organization of: conferences, training courses, seminars, ecological competitions, study tours, publishing of publications, films dedicated to ecological corridors, organization of informative actions emphasizing significance of ecological corridors, the necessity to consider them in planning actions and processes.
