Strategic assessments supporting the long term conservation of natural values of community interest

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Narrative

The project aims to improve our understanding of ecosystems, map the spatial distribution of Hungary's natural capital and develop the current knowledge base, which is essential to halt biodiversity loss. The project’s main elements include: Status assessment (sampling, surveys, habitat mapping); Development of tools for long-term conservation (e.g. national ecosystem services mapping, made publicly available by an online geospatial tool); Awareness raising (strategic importance of the conservation of natural and landscape values at landscape scale, the national geo-spatial database of landscape character units, a national digital map database of green infrastructure); Definition of a strategic framework for the conservation and development of green infrastructure in Hungary. Thanks to the project elements it is expected that sectoral activities that have a direct impact on the state of natural values and systems (nature conservation, field and forest management, spatial planning, etc.) will ensure the conservation of natural diversity in a cost-effective way, based on sound, up-to-date natural information. In that way, the project is expected to contribute to the the national implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020.

Financial data

Total: ~2 835 000 Euro (EU funding: 85%- ERDA)

Recommendations

In order to have up-to-date information about the status of biodiversity and natural habitats, it is recommended to support its assessment, including modern, geospatial tools and make the results public. Online free geospatial tools and databases can also be important sources for education and academia. Awareness-raising about the ecosystem services and the landscape-scale assessment of natural and other (e.g. cultural) values can be important and efficient tools to make residents interested in the protection of biodiversity and natural habitats, therefore such activities should be supported from public funds.