The Conference of the Parties
1. Adopts the International Action Plan on Conservation of Large Carnivores and Ensuring Ecological Connectivity and encourages the Parties, the WG Biodiversity and other stakeholders, with support of the Secretariat, to ensure smooth implementation of the Plan;
2. Welcomes the contributions of the WG Biodiversity and of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) to the development of the Report on population status of large carnivores and monitoring methods in the Carpathians that shall support harmonization of monitoring of large carnivores in the Carpathians, in accordance with the Action Plan on Conservation of Large Carnivores and Ensuring Ecological Connectivity, and requests the WG Biodiversity and relevant partners to support this process;
3. Encourages the Parties and WG Biodiversity to further explore topics for collaboration with WG Climate Change and WG Forest, inter alia, and if possible, an idea of an assessment of climate change effects on large carnivores and their habitats, that could be linked to the assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Carpathian forests and their ecosystem services;
4. Welcomes the Workshop Towards the standardization of monitoring procedures for large carnivore’s populations in the Carpathian, organized within the Fifth Forum Carpaticum on 15 October 2018 in Eger, Hungary, organized by the Secretariat and the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation in cooperation with partners;
5. Welcomes the support of WWF CEE and WWF Romania given to the work of the Carpathian Convention on large carnivores through the implementation of the ConnectGREEN and EUROLARGECARNIVORES projects, including the organization of the Workshop on large carnivores monitoring and conservation in the Carpathians, held back-to-back with the meeting of WG Biodiversity held on 25 – 28 November 2019 in Coltesti, Romania;
6. Welcomes the implementation of the project ConnectGREEN - Restoring and managing ecological corridors in mountains as the green infrastructure in the Danube basin, funded by the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme; encourages the Parties to promote and use the results of the project, as appropriate, thanks the WWF Romania and other partners, especially CEEweb for continued support in implementing the project;
7. Recognizes the importance of the ecological connectivity in the Carpathians for biodiversity preservation and adaptation to future environmental conditions, invites the Parties and relevant WGs to make use of the existing instruments, including relevant project results, as appropriate, for adequate managing and protecting the Carpathian natural heritage and restoring the ecological connectivity, and to undertake necessary actions in this respect;
8. Welcomes the ongoing implementation of the Centralparks project, funded by the INTERREG Central Europe Programme and led by Eurac Research, that gives considerable support to the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (CNPA) activities, encourages CNPA, WG Biodiversity and the Secretariat to further support its implementation and encourages the Parties to contribute to and use the results of the project, as appropriate; and takes note of the activities of the Centralparks project, especially “the Carpathian strategy for enhancing biodiversity and landscape conservation outside and inside Protected Areas”;
9. Requests members the CNPA to further strengthen communication and sharing of relevant information with the CNPA Focal Points and relevant partners;
10. Takes note of the implementation of the project “Three Networks, Two macroregions, One vision - development of Green Infrastructure to foster ecological connectivity between Danube, Carpathians and Alps”, and requests the Chair of the CNPA Steering Committee to share the result of the project;
11. Welcomes the cooperation between the ALPARC, DANUBEPARKS and CNPA under the Memorandum of Cooperation of 2016, in particular cooperation under the ALPBIONET2030 project resulting in the elaboration of “Recommendations and Action Plan ALPS-DANUBE-CARPATHIANS cooperation for ecological connectivity”, and encourages further cooperation on topics of common interest, especially on ecological connectivity, exchanges on protected areas management, education and other specific topics common to the three networks;
12. Welcomes the initiative to organize the 3rd Conference for the Carpathian Protected Areas in 2021 in Visegrad with the support of the ConnectGreen and Centralparks projects, and encourages the Parties, CNPA, WG Biodiversity and the Secretariat to support its organization as appropriate;
13. Appreciating the work of the Carpathian Wetland Initiative (CWI) in strengthening synergies between the Ramsar Convention and the Carpathian Convention, welcomes close cooperation of CWI with the Secretariat and relevant WGs, especially the WG Biodiversity and the WG Climate Change, in raising the importance of the Carpathian wetlands and initiating concrete activities, including development of a project proposal on relevant topics, encourages the relevant WGs and the Secretariat to support the process and the project’s implementation, if successful;
14. Welcomes and appreciates the organization of international courses on Sustainable agriculture in wetlands, held on 22-27 September 2019 and on wetland restoration planned on 5-9 October 2020 (postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), both in the Czech Republic by CWI and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic;
15. Welcomes the designation of the new Ramsar sites, wetlands sites of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, in the Carpathians in Poland, Romania and Ukraine, and encourages other Parties to consider designation of new Ramsar sites in the Carpathian region;
16. Welcomes the voluntary contribution made by Hungary and the Slovak Republic to the Carpathian Wetland Initiative, and encourages other Parties to do so as well;
17. Welcomes the approval of the project SwiPE-Successful Wildlife Crime Prosecution in Europe under the EU LIFE Programme 2019 call, led by WWF CEE with support of the Secretariat; and requests the Secretariat to further discuss joint activities among UNEP, UNODC and WWF CEE for the project implementation.
18. Welcomes the establishment in 2019 of Polish-Ukrainian Biosphere Reserve “Roztocze” and the initiative to designate a Ukrainian-Romanian Transboundary Biosphere Reserve in the Maramures Ridge of the Carpathian Mountains;