Project code: V4-2412
Project duration: 1. 9. 2024 do 31. 8. 2026
Budget: 165.200,00 €
Funding: ARIS, MKGP
PROJECT SUMMARY:
In recent decades, habitat conditions for game and other wildlife species have deteriorated, particularly due to the intensification of agriculture and urbanization. In recent years, various infrastructural investments and projects related to the use of modern energy resources have also contributed to this issue. It is therefore essential to conduct assessments to evaluate each investment/project in terms of its impact on various environmental elements. Among other things, assessing the impact on wildlife is important for biodiversity conservation. Current knowledge and experience show that the assessment of the impacts of various investments in this area is inadequate, and there is a lack of consideration of possible cumulative impacts of different investment projects on the wildlife habitats. Harmful effects are observed through the decline in the abundance and fitness of certain wildlife species (particularly small game) and loss of ecological connectivity (especially for larger species). The development of guidelines with criteria for assessing impacts of new projects and potential mitigation measures is an important expert basis and tool for all stakeholders preparing environment-related documents for different spatial interventions.
OBJECTIVES:
Within the project, we will achieve our goals with the help of the following activities:
- Study of the current conditions of the environment and wildlife populations and their long-term temporal changes. We will focus on the fields with significant anthropogenic impacts. Through literature review and spatial (GIS) analyses, we will investigate historical changes and describe the current condition of these fields. We will make an analysis of the current status and temporal changes in wildlife populations, and identify connections between environmental changes and the condition of selected wildlife species.
- Review of existing ecological connectivity models in Slovenia and assessment of the role of landscape elements for long-term connectivity conservation: We will examine existing ecological connectivity models in Slovenia and analyse the contribution of different landscape elements to ecological connectivity in intensive agricultural landscapes.
- Analysis of previous environmental impact assessments from the perspective of wildlife and their habitats: We will focus on groups of interventions where significant impacts of human activities on game and other wildlife species are expected. We will develop a methodology for evaluating the treatment of the wildlife in environmental reports, and based on the analyses, prepare guidelines and recommendations on how to improve the quality of content related to wildlife in future reports.
- Study of required habitat conditions for wildlife in the environments with significant anthropogenic impacts: We will focus on selected wildlife species, and study the impact of different spatial interventions.
- Identification and description of key anthropogenic impacts that reduce the quality of wildlife habitats: We will analyse the measures of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Slovenia and review the standards for good agricultural and environmental condition of the environment and suggest various interventions.
- Development of guidelines with criteria for assessing interventions and potential mitigation measures for environmental or wildlife habitat interventions: These guidelines will be used as an assistance to key stakeholders involved in spatial intervention assessments.
- Dissemination of results to end users.
