Identifying the Strategic Alpine Connectivity Areas (SACA) and proposing some concrete actions to safeguard their role for an Alpine ecological network – that is one of the main challenges facing the ALPBIONET2030 project. During the project Mid-term Conference that took place on 2nd and 3rd July 2018 in the Berchtesgaden Project Working Region (PWR), first results of the mapping of these areas were presented to the interested audience (online access to GIS tool Jecami https://2030.jecami.eu/viewer/saca/). An excursion in the region offered the opportunity to get an idea of what different types of SACA could look like – and how to conserve or improve their functionality regarding ecological connectivity. Knowing what to do and where to implement the actions is a crucial step for preserving ecological connectivity in an Alpine context – but the support of local stakeholders and the local population is also a determining success factor for all activities. Different communication tools developed by the project partners make it possible for a wider public to familiarize themselves with the topic and get a feeling of the importance of inter-connected habitats: a picture quiz illustrating ecological connectivity in a landscape context (https://qz.app.do/ecological-connectivity), exciting online games (https://2030.jecami.eu/) or a short video introducing some features of the project.

ALPBIONET2030 is an Interreg Alpine Space project and lasts from November 2016 to October 2019. It is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme.

For further information about the project, please visit the ALPBIONET2030 website