Representatives of the DANUBEPARKS Network attended last week on the three-day final conference of the DANUBEparksCONNECTED project. Organized by Public Enterprise „Vojvodinašume“ from Serbia, the conference was held at the Hotel Park in Novi Sad .
On June 11th, in Novi Sad, Steering Committee Meeting and Project Partner Meeting was held, on which the main conclusions about project were drawn up and the project reports were reviewed.
On second day of the conference, June 12th, welcome speeches for all participants was delivered by Marta Takač (director of „Vojvodinašume“), Nebojša Vojnović (undersecretary, Provincial secretariat for regional development, interregional cooperation and local), Brankica Tabak (undersecretary, Provincial secretariat for urbanism and environmental protection), Marton Mikos (representative of EUSDR PA6) and Vlatko Rožac (president of DANUBEPARKS Association).
After welcome speeches introduction and overview of DANUBEparksCONNECTED results was presented:
- DANUBEparksCONNECTED: highlights and results (Stephanie Blutaumüller and Georg Frank, Donau-Auen National Park),
- WILDisland initiative (Balazs Toth, Duna-Ipoly National Park),
- DANUBE FREE SKY (Ion Monteanu, Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority),
- Danube Dry Habitat Corridor (Christiane Kotz, Landratsamt Passau).
Considering that conference was held in Serbia there were presentations also about ecological connectivity in Vojvodina Province of Serbia and about habitat corridors in Serbia.
Different projects on ecological connectivity along Danube were presented by members of several organizations:
- DaRe to Connect – Green Belt (Markus Pochtrager, University of Vienna),
- Sturgeon – MEASURES (Mijana Lenhardt, University of Belgrade),
- Coop MDD (Marko Tucakov, Institute for Nature Conservation of the Vojvodina Province),
- Sava TIES (Ivana Vasić, PE „Vojvodinašume“).
At the end of second conference day, moderated panel discussion was held on topic: „DANUBEparksCONNECTED and ecological connectivity in the eyes of the international organizations“. Members of panel bord were: Marton Mikos (EUSDR PA6), Edith Hödl (ICPDR), Georg Frank (DANUBEPARKS) and Jan Kadlečik (Carpathian Wetland Centre).
Third day of conference was held in Sombor with a space for outlook and conclusions, and also agreements about final phase of project - activities and reporting.
