Did you know that ...
... one-third of all European vascular plant species can be found in the Carpathians? That means almost 4,000 plant species, and 481 of them are found only in the Carpathians!
… Gerlachovsky Peak (2,655 m altitude) in the High Tatras in Slovak Republic is the highest peak of the Carpathians?
… the European Union’s largest populations of brown bears, wolves, lynx, European bisons and imperial eagles (globally threatened species) are found in the Carpathians?
… 36 national parks, 51 nature parks and protected landscape areas, 19 biosphere reserves and 200 other protected areas are member of the Carpathian Network of Protected areas
… there are 36 registered UNESCO World Heritage sites and 49 important pilgrimage destinations in the Carpathian area?
… the number of hotels in the Carpathians has increased by nearly 60% in the last ten years?
… the Carpathians contain the continent's largest remaining natural mountain beech and beech/coniferous forest ecosystems and the largest area of pristine forest in Europe (outside Russia)?
... the Carpathians are the largest, most twisted and fragmented mountain chain in Europe? They are Europe’s largest mountains by area.
… in the 1970’s, about 1,000,000 people worked in the mining sector in the Carpathians? Today, the number of employees in this sector is about 340,000.
… the Carpathians were put on the WWF ‘Global 200’ list of major ecoregions in need of biodiversity and habitat conservation?
… more than half of the Carpathians are covered by forests? The Carpathian forests are a vital link between the forests of the north and those of the west and south-west of Europe.
TRANSGREEN: Green and Grey Infrastructure in the Carpathians
The network of highways and railways that connect key areas of the Czech Republic and, further on, our country to the rest of Europe is being planned for development right now. This “large infrastructure” will be developed across the Carpathian Mountains and will cross valuable ecosystems comprised in natural protected areas, including Natura 2000 sites, threatening to fragment and to disturb them. In order to prevent and to diminish these threats and pressures on nature, the TRANSGREEN project aims to develop an environmentally-friendly and safe transport network in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
The TRANSGREEN brings together organizations directly involved in the planning of large infrastructure projects, as well as nature conservation, which ensure an integrated approach on the development of an environmentally-friendly and safe transport system in the Carpathian region: national and regional authorities, international organizations, research centres and universities, motorway companies, environmental organizations. These organizations have the know-how, capacity, experience and authority to develop concrete solutions to reduce environmental impact and design suitable Green Infrastructure elements. One focus will be maintaining uninterrupted ecological corridors which ensure the free movement of species most vulnerable to the impact of motorways and railways: large carnivores (such as the brown bear, the wolf and the lynx) as well as certain species of herbivores.
The concrete measures regarding the planning, building, management and monitoring of large infrastructure will focus on four pilot-projects: the Beskydy motorway (Czech Republic-Slovakia), the Tîrgu Mureș-Iași motorway (Romania), the Curtici (Radna)-Deva railway (Romania), the Miskolc (Hungary) – Kosice (Slovakia) – Uzhgorod (Ukraine) motorway. The project will also develop a set of standards regarding the integrated planning of infrastructure projects and will advocate for their inclusion in public policy across the region.
Project partners:
- Czech Republic – Nature Conservation Agency, Friends of the Earth Czech Republic - branch Olomouc, , Transport Research Centre
- Austria - WWF International Danube-Carpathian Programme (project lead), Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention
- Hungary – CEEweb for Biodiversity
- Romania - Association “Milvus Group”, WWF Romania
- Slovakia – National Motorway Company, State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic, SPECTRA – Centre of Excellence of EU – Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
Associated project partners:
- Czech Republic – Ministry of the Environment
- Austria – Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology
- Hungary – National Infrastructure Developing Private Company Ltd.
- Poland – Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction
- Romania – Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Transport
- Slovenia – Ministry of Infrastructure
- Ukraine - Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Transcarpathian Regional State Administration – Department of Ecology and Natural Resources
Project website:
Financial support:
Project co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA), through the Danube Transnational Programme (DTP), Priority 3 - Better connected and energy responsible Danube region, Specific objective - Support environmentally-friendly and safe transport systems and balanced accessibility of urban and rural areas.
