We are thrilled to inform you that ECO KARST project has been nominated as a finalist of the European Natura 2000 Award! In this 5th edition, 27 projects were selected as finalists and the high-level Jury is now considering the short list. Five winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony in Brussels in October, 2020.

Still celebrating project results in late summer 2019, Slovenian Forest Service (SFS) applied for the European Natura 2000 Award on behalf of ECO KARST project consortium.

The European Natura 2000 Award aims to honour leading nature conservation achievements and reward excellence in the management and promotion of the network as well as to raise awareness about Natura 2000 and its benefits to European citizens. In doing so it also contributes to the fourth priority area of the Commission’s Action Plan for Nature, People and the Economy to improve the protection of nature and biodiversity in the EU, for the benefit of its citizens and the economy. 

In the beginning of June 2020, we received the announcement of Natura 2000 Award finalists and learned that ECO KARST has been selected as one of the finalists out of 79 eligible applications, category Reconciling Interests/Perceptions. This category concerns the establishment of effective partnerships between stakeholders involved in the management / conservation of Natura 2000 sites that are aimed at resolving Natura 2000 issues more constructively than would have been the case if the partners had operated individually. We are very proud of such a great achievement, since only 27 projects were selected in the whole Europe and 3 projects within the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme.

 All 27 finalists are being considered by the jury for one of the five categories (Conservation, Socio-Economic Benefits, Communication, Reconciling Interests / Perceptions, and Cross-Border Cooperation and Networking).

In addition, over the coming weeks, the general public will be able to vote for their favourite Natura 2000 finalist. The finalist who receives the highest number of votes will receive the high-profile EU Citizens’ Award.

Which is why we need your public vote for the ECO KARST project on the Award website!

Help us to bring additional attention to the impact and replication potential of our activities, that were focussed on bridging the gap between the needs of biodiversity preservation and the improvement of the livelihoods of local populations.

The ECO KARST project was implemented in the period from January, 2017 to June, 2019, significantly contributing to protection and sustainable development of karst bio-regions in the Danube region, based on their valued Ecosystem services. The project won the 1st prize at the DTP Video Competition and also was among the top 10 finalists at the DTP Photo Competition.

Watch the full ECO KARST short movie

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