Ecological Connectivity of Habitats for Large Carnivores

Posted on 26 April 2024

In the past few days, we held two workshops on the topic of protecting large carnivores - one in Kosovo and the other in Serbia.

This month, we organized two one-day workshops on the topic "Ecological Connectivity of Habitats for Large Carnivores."

The first workshop was held on April 23rd in Pristina, where experts from WWF Adria and the Slovenian Forestry Institute presented the conducted analysis of ecological connectivity for large carnivores throughout the Dinaric-Balkan-Pindos region, with a special focus on Kosovo. Additionally, a field visit to a selected critical area was organized - in the case of Kosovo, the pilot area was "Bjeshka e Kasmaqit - Bjeshket e Berishes."

A similar workshop was held two days later, on April 25th, in the Stara Planina Nature Park in Serbia, where the same experts presented the results of the analysis of ecological connectivity for large carnivores in Serbia, and the selected pilot area for field visits was Knjaževac.

The objectives of these workshops were to familiarize participants with good examples of protecting key connectivity areas for large carnivores in Europe, the Alps, as well as in the region, and to present research results for the Dinaric-Balkan-Pindos region, including Kosovo and Serbia.

The aim of this research was to identify large forest habitat parts that are important for large carnivores because they require large continuous forest parts for normal functioning and species health. The increasing fragmentation and disappearance of forest habitats lead us to think jointly at the international level about ways in which we can ensure that large carnivores have sufficiently good conditions to remain in these areas.

After presenting the results, we held a discussion on the example of the selected key connectivity area for large carnivores, where we collectively discussed ways to better protect key habitats for the ecological connectivity of large carnivores in the future. Participants also discussed ways to incorporate research results into various strategic documents such as spatial plans and management plans.

Once again, we thank everyone for their great attendance and interest in a better future for us and for large carnivores.

Large carnivores conservation workshop in Kosovo

Ecological Connectivity of Habitats for Large Carnivores

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