IENE2018 Final Declaration Def 14092018
IENE2018 Final Declaration Def 14092018
IENE2018 Final Declaration Def 14092018
Final Declaration
common statement by the participants
[TITLE]
CONNECTING EUROPE, CONNECTING NATURE
[SUBTITLE]
Building bridges and crossing borders for the
defragmentation of Europe
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT]
We, the participants of the IENE 2018 International Conference, acknowledge
that:
As of January 2014, the European Union adopted a new transport infrastructure
policy that connects the continent: the Trans European Transport Network
(TEN-T). The aim of the TEN-T is to strengthen the social, economic and
territorial cohesion of the EU and to contribute to the establishment of a single
European transport area.
https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/about-ten-t_en
Almost concurrently, since 2013, the European Commission adopted an EU-wide
strategy - “The EU strategy on Green Infrastructure” - to promote the deployment
of green infrastructure across Europe and to develop a Trans-European
Network for Green Infrastructure (TEN-G).
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/ecosystems/strategy/index_en.htm
The TEN-G aims to enhance nature's ability to deliver multiple valuable
ecosystem goods and services, providing a wide range of environmental,
social, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and biodiversity benefits.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/ecosystems/index_en.htm
Habitat fragmentation is a top threat to biodiversity, its impact enhanced by
growing infrastructure networks (transportation, energy and ICT). Land
fragmentation results in undermining ecological connectivity and making it harder
or impossible for wildlife to migrate and find new and/or better suitable habitats .
By preserving the intra- and inter-population connectivity and thus diversity,
biodiversity loss and extinction of species can be prevented.
https://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/biodiversity
While also affected by other key threats - loss and degradation of wildlife habitats
and while likely to be aggravated by increasing effects of climate change - the
rate of biodiversity loss accelerates not only throughout Europe but equally
worldwide. This is directly connected with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (Target
5/Strategic goal B: “by 2020, the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including
forests, is at least halved and where feasible brought close to zero, and
degradation and fragmentation is significantly reduced”.
(https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/).
As of 14 September 2012, the European Commission adopted a new strategy for
international cooperation in research and innovation: "Enhancing and
focusing EU international cooperation in research and innovation: a strategic
approach.”
https://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?pg=strategy
IENE2018 International conference
Final Declaration
common statement by the participants
[STATEMENT]
In this framework, we, the participants of the IENE2018 conference hereby
state:
The need to acknowledge a sense of urgency concerning habitat
fragmentation throughout Europe. The IENE Conference 2018 is therefore
dedicated in part to presenting the results of the Dutch Defragmentation
Program (MJPO) as a success story in reconnecting fragmented habitats.
Furthermore Austria, Germany, France Czechia or Switzerland have equally
developed national defragmentation concepts for their existing linear
(road) network, adding to the importance of developing a synergetic approach
towards transportation and nature conservancy.
At the same time, new infrastructure developments, on all levels, from local
to transnational, are expected to be implemented in yet unaffected
landscapes in other regions as Eastern and Southern Europe, whether or not
in the framework of the TEN-T.
These developments extend beyond Europe, as by 2050 an additional 25
million kilometres of transport infrastructure will be constructed globally.
The integration of a solid and comprehensive ecological connectivity
strategy within transportation and infrastructural developments would
acknowledge the negative impacts on ecosystems and wildlife habitats, which
result from land fragmentation, and provide the means to address thereof.
We - the IENE community – therefore call the European Commission to
support the development of a European Defragmentation Program, as a
synergy between the TEN-T and TEN-G strategies.
Enhanced cooperation is necessary for such a Program, and it cannot be
limited to national governments only, but should equally transcend sectorial
collaboration. Experts and practitioners in the transportation and nature
conservancy fields should work together and conduct joint research to
identify innovative and cost-efficient solutions for defragmentation.
The development and implementation of the European Defragmentation
Program will support the defragmentation of wildlife habitats throughout
Europe and equally use the resulting expertise to implement similar actions
anywhere else in the world were habitat fragmentation is emerging as a key
threat to biodiversity.
IENE2018 International conference
Final Declaration
common statement by the participants
[CALL/URGE]
Therefore, we, the participants of the IENE2018 conference call for:
[DATE]
Declared by the participants of the IENE2018 International Conference on
14 September 2018.
IENE2018 International conference
Final Declaration
common statement by the participants
[DEFINITIONS]
3 Fragmentation
References:
_ Communication from the Commission to the European parliament, the Council, the
European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions. Green
infrastructure (GI) — Enhancing Europe’s Natural Capital (COM/2013/0249 final;
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/ecosystems/index_en.htm). _ Benedict, M.A.
and McMahon, E.T. 2006. Green Infrastructure: Smart Conservation for the 21st
Century. Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse Monographs Series. 32 pp. Washington.
IENE2018 International conference
Final Declaration
common statement by the participants
[DECLARATIONS]
What are IENE Declarations?
Since 1996, IENE operates as an international and interdisciplinary forum to
encourage and enable cross-boundary cooperation in research and mitigation and
planning in the field of ecology and transport infrastructures. The IENE biannual
international conference provides interdisciplinary discussion panels for these
activities with the aim to present cutting-edge research, identify urgent questions and
problems, discus effective solutions, and outline the paths for upcoming activities in
transport and infrastructure ecology.
Since 2012, a Declaration is produced during each conference and focused on a
topic that requires particular attention from transportation and nature conservancy
stakeholders. This message represents a common statement by the participants and
addresses decision makers, planners, technicians and researchers as well as the
general public, by calling for actions that contribute to finding solutions to old and
emerging conflicts, filling the research gap and overall minimising the impact that
transport infrastructure exerts on nature.