Project content

As in many parts of the world, climate change has accelerated in the Austro-Hungarian border region as a result of human activities as well. The extreme effects of the climate process are abundantly confirmed by data. With conditions changing at such a rapid rate, populations of forest trees are not able to keep up either. According to the downscaled climate models, the rate of temperature rise in the next 50-80 years in the program area will most likely exceed the global average, while precipitation will not increase. This degree of change may jeopardize the sustainment of the stability and biodiversity of the native forest cover in the AT-HU border area. In order to offset the negative effects and to maintain the stability of the forest cover and preserve its biodiversity, protection measures are needed in the border areas. However, harmonised protection measures to preserve native forests have not yet been implemented in the program area. In the present project, based on the Europe-scale forest reproductive material recommendation and transfer system (SusSelect) developed in the SUSTREE project, the partnership will carry out modelling data analysis at regional level for the forests in the project area and develop a bilateral strategy for seed transfer. Based on the bilateral strategy, the movement of reproductive material will be implemented in 6 jointly selected field sites, as a protection measure, using two pre-defined, dominant tree species of the forests of the project area. A joint management plan will be drawn up to monitor the effectiveness of the measures. It is important that the topic processed by the project reaches the general public. Thus, professional actions are completed through the implementation of targeted activities to raise awareness of the ecological diversity and values of forests.