European Green Belt

New momentum for the Green Belt

Geographical location in Europe

Ecosystem network with an extraordinarily high level of biodiversity, forming a 12,500 km long corridor along the route of the Iron Curtain of the Cold War era (map p. 5). The European Green Belt connects eight biogeographical regions and 24 nations.

Status

Despite the European Green Belt’s great ecological importance, few funding options exist for the initiative. As a result, there is a lack of capacity for the planning and implementation of projects that contribute to biodiversity conservation and foster sustainable development along the ecological network.

Objectives

Our aim is to fundamentally change this situation by means of the BESTbelt project. The European Union will make available a total of € 3.5 million (€ 2.2 million in the reporting year) for tangible projects along the European Green Belt, from Norway all the way south to Greece and Turkey. Funding will be provided to initiatives that preserve biodiversity and apply promising approaches, for example in sustainable regional development.

Selected activities and important achievements in 2022

The first eleven eligible projects have been selected. Each project will now receive funding of up to € 40,000 for a wide spectrum of activities ranging from the restoration of historical wells in Bulgaria as microhabitats to making tourism on Latvia‘s coasts more sustainable.

More than 60 project applications were received on foot of the First Call for Proposals. This is a great success and demonstrates the need for funding for conservation projects along the entire European Green Belt. It was also very heartening to see that many applications came from actors with whom we had had no prior contact. The potential along the European Green Belt is even greater than we had initially assumed.

At a conference in Montenegro in the first week of November 2022, the selected stakeholders presented their projects to a wide audience from 22 countries. The valuable exchanges between new and established actors along the European Green Belt enhanced connectivity in the European nature conservation community.

Outlook

A Second Call for Proposals will be issued in 2023, offering the opportunity to obtain funding for the implementation of further exciting ideas. It may be possible to see initial successes of the small projects that commenced in the reporting year as early as 2023. Our aim is to provide additional support for the development of green jobs and to organise a youth work camp.

Partners: BUND, European Green Belt Association-Board

Funding: European Commission, EuroNatur‘s donors