The DANUBEPARKS Evening Event on February 27th in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna was a full success: More than 120 guests joined the event, marking the end of the first transnational DANUBEPARKS project, but also giving an outlook to the future.
Victoria Hasler from the Austrian Ministry of Environment (Lebensministerium), Alexander Faltejsek from the City of Vienna and Wolfgang Stalzer, President of the ICPDR (International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River) welcomed the guests and underlined the important role of transnational cooperation for successful and efficient nature protection of a European ecosystem.
Presentations given by Georg Frank (DANUBEPARKS project manager) and Carl Manzano (DANUBEPARKS spokesman, director of Donau-Auen National Park) outlined the past achievements of the network – ranging from protection of flagship species to nature tourism, from demonstrative pilot projects to transnational strategies adopted on political level. The future of the network was a topic as well, with short outlooks to DANUBEPARKS STEP2.0, a follow-up project submitted in the 4th call of the ETC-SEE programme.
Two panel discussions – on biodiversity protection and on conservation and development –gave the chance to external stakeholders Phil Weller (ICPDR), Florian Ballnus (EUSDR), Alessandra Pala (JTS ETC-SEE), Andreas Beckmann (WWF DCP), and Christian Baumgartner (DCC) to discuss their perspectives with representatives of DANUBEPARKS and the protected areas as well as with the audience.
The biodiversity panellists unanimously underlined the importance of habitat networks, where the protected areas act as main stepping stones, but need more connection and efforts from other stakeholders in the areas in between. Grigore Baboianu (Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Romania) also pointed out the importance of monitoring and research, to determine the status quo of biodiversity. Andreas Beckmann already reached out to the topic of the second panel, stating the usefulness of explaining the economic value of intact nature to stakeholders and making the public and politics aware of the high economic costs arising from loss of habitats and biodiversity. Statements from the audience added criticism regarding the lax implementation of the Natura2000 network outside of well-established protected areas with a management authority.
During the conservation and development panel, the necessity of cross-sectorial cooperation was underlined by Alessandra Pala – it was made clear that this is not a plus for project submissions, but a must. A problem stated by Phil Weller was that the interests of other industries (e.g. navigation and energy) is still weighing more than those of nature, and that it is the task of the EUSDR and the ICPDR to support a development towards balanced interests, including balanced distribution of funds. Regarding tourism, Christian Baumgartner pointed out the need to develop and market sustainable forms of tourism, bringing benefits both to nature and to local communities, as opposed to the currently dominating cruise tourism. The panellists also agreed that the inclusion of Croatia and Serbia into the European Union and the cooperation with protected areas in Moldova and Ukraine will strengthen the positive effects of the DANUBEPARKS Network and other transnational networks in the region.
As a final celebration and pointed reminder of the stakeholders “home-works”, caricatures painted by Barbara Bohacek during the presentations and discussions were distributed, to make sure the messages of the event won’t get lost.
Agenda of the DANUBEPARKS Conference
DANUBEPARKS Project Results (Presentation G.Frank)
DANUBEPARKS Experiences and Perspectives (Presentation C.Manzano)
