EUROPE Ecosystems span the political divides that separate countries. "The European Green Belt will help
us to bring people in Europe closer together."
- Mikhail Gorbachev
The fall of the Iron Curtain left a relatively undisturbed corridor running the entire length of Europe,
from the Barents to the Black Sea, which remains comparably undisturbed in many places.
The European Green Belt is a symbol of the union between East and West and a key element in
Europe's global commitment to halting biodiversity loss by 2010.
Partner:
Euronatur
Initiative:
restoration of habitat within the Balkan Green Belt
A Green Belt in Place of an Iron Curtain
The Balkan Green Belt is the southernmost part of the pan European Green Belt,
an ecological network and global symbol of trans-boundary cooperation in nature
conservation and sustainable development. The initiative seeks to connect a strip
of undisturbed habitat remaining unchanged since the creation of the Iron Curtain
and restore adjacent areas of high conservational value.
Particularly in Albania, forests are strongly degraded due to political isolation in the
second half of the 20th Century. To secure an energy supply under a policy of
autarchy, most forests were logged and high grazing and browsing pressure from
goats and sheep prevented any forest regeneration. The severe over-use caused, and
still causes, heavy topsoil erosion and land degradation in significant parts of Albania.
Restoration of the Balkan Green Belt is imperative for the formation of the European
Green Belt as a viable ecological corridor, and will also aide the Balkan Lynx Recovery Programme In securing the survival of this highly endangered population.
Only 100 of these big cats are thought to remain in existence in the remote hills of
Albania and Macedonia, and the biology, ecology and history of the species are not
well understood. As reliable data does not exist concerning the population size and distribution of the Balkan lynx, research and education will play a key role in protection
of the species.
In addition to preparatory work for the designation of a cross-border protected area
and habitat restoration, training courses will be implemented for local conservationists
in the field of protected area management and wildlife monitoring. Certain limited
projects - e.g. in ecological fieldwork and sustainable land use - will be started which
can then serve as models for other projects.
