C I T Y O F Z A G R E B B I O D I V E R S I T Y R E P O R T | 2 0 0 8 LA B Local Action for Biodiversity A N I C L E I I N I T I A T I V E E N H A N C I N G U R B A N N A T U R E T H R O U G H A G L O B A L N E T W O R K O F L O C A L G O V E R N M E N T S LA B Local Action for Biodiversity A N I C L E I I N I T I A T I V E The Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) Project is a 3 year project which was initiated by the City of Cape Town, supported by the eThekwini Municipality (Durban), and developed in conjunction with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability and partners. ICLEI is an international association of local governments and national and regional local government organisations that have made a commitment to sustainable development. LAB is a project within ICLEI's biodiversity programme, which aims to assist local governments in their efforts to conserve and sustainably manage biodiversity. Local Action for Biodiversity involves a select number of cities worldwide and focuses on exploring the best ways for local governments to engage in urban biodiversity conservation, enhancement, utilisation and management. The Project aims to facilitate understanding, communication and support among decision-makers, citizens and other stakeholders regarding urban biodiversity issues and the need for local action. It emphasises integration of biodiversity considerations into planning and decision-making processes. Some of the specific goals of the Project include demonstrating best practice urban biodiversity management; provision of documentation and development of biodiversity management and implementation tools; sourcing funding from national and international agencies for biodiversity- related development projects; and increasing global awareness of the importance of biodiversity at the local level. The Local Action for Biodiversity Project is hosted within the ICLEI Africa Secretariat at the City of Cape Town, South Africa and partners with ICLEI, IUCN, Countdown 2010, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and RomaNatura. For more information, please visit www.iclei.org/lab FOREWORD Dear Readers, No particular document has so far systematically analysed the regulations and recommendations for preservation of biological diversity in Zagreb area as a whole and particularly of threatened taxa and habitats. The City of Zagreb Biodiversity Report, prepared in the framework of international Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) Project, is the first one that summarizes complex approaches to and management of biodiversity issues in our City. The Biodiversity Report will be used when verifying existing and new plans and decisions from nature protection point of view. It will allow for steering the City development in the way most appropriate for its environment and citizens. But this Report is not intended to administrative bodies exclusively. We want to make the citizens of the City of Zagreb acquainted with rich diversity of Zagreb's space, preserved natural values and potentials, but also with the challenges we are facing in the management. I encourage all citizens to become acquainted with the activities in the LAB framework and to assist when appropriate in its implementation. Only with the public participation we can achieve our goals and enjoy the benefits deriving from preservation and wise management of our City's natural and semi-natural areas. Now I wish you a pleasant reading. Milan Bandic Mayor of the City of Zagreb BIODIVERSITY REPORT | CITY OF ZAGREB | 2008 1 CONTENTS PREFACE 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 LOCALITY MAP 7 INTRODUCTION 8 1. ECOLOGY 1.1. Biodiversity definition 10 1.2. Biodiversity description 10 Natural richness of the City of Zagreb area 10 The known history of biodiversity 11 Habitat types 14 Flora 21 Fauna 24 Biodiversity Map 28 The value of biodiversity to the City and its inhabitants 31 1.3. Threats to biodiversity 34 1.4. Biodiversity management 35 Biodiversity protection objectives 35 Methods used in biodiversity management and monitoring 37 Links between biodiversity management and social issues, job creation, tourism, etc. 39 2. GOVERNANCE 2.1. Biodiversity in city management 40 Obligations of the City of Zagreb under the Nature Protection Act 40 The institutional structure of biodiversity management staff within City's governance structure 41 The priority and recognition of biodiversity on City's agenda 42 The history and development of biodiversity management 42 Stakeholders other than the City who manage biodiversity within the City 47 Incentives or disincentives for wise management or utilisation of biodiversity 49 Aspects of biodiversity management that have been particularly successful 49 Aspects of biodiversity management in city that have been less successful or particularly challenging 50 2.1. Biodiversity Projects 50 2 BIODIVERSITY REPORT | CITY OF ZAGREB | 2008 3. INTEGRATION 3.1. Mainstreaming biodiversity management into City governance 55 3.2. Interaction with other agencies 55 3.3. International biodiversity initiatives 55 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND AWARENESS 4.1. Public participation and access 57 Informing the public about biodiversity 57 Public participation in decision-making 57 Public access 58 4.2. Biodiversity awareness-raising/education projects 59 ANNEXURES Annexure 1 64 Annexure 2 65 Annexure 3 66 Annexure 4 67 Annexure 5 68 REFERENCES 69 GLOSSARY 71 BIODIVERSITY REPORT | CITY OF ZAGREB | 2008 3 PREFACE This document forms part of a set of biodiversity reports produced by participant cities of the Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) Project. It represents a critical starting point: a status quo assessment of biodiversity and its management in each LAB city. Each biodiversity report covers four key themes, namely: ! Ecology ! Governance ! Integration ! Participation Each biodiversity report will be drawn upon to contribute significant and useful information for the compilation, by the LAB Project Team, of a Biodiversity Toolkit document. This document will contain best practice theory and examples, principles, strategies etc. for use by cities to better manage and integrate biodiversity into planning. The Toolkit will in turn contribute towards further steps in the LAB process. The five steps in the LAB process are as follows: Step 1: Development of a biodiversity report that documents the current state of biodiversity and its management within each city Step 2: Ensuring long-term commitment by city leadership to sustainable biodiversity management through LAB cities formally signing a local government biodiversity declaration Step 3: Development of a 10-year biodiversity action plan and framework that will include commitments to biodiversity implementation plans and integration within broader city plans Step 4: LAB cities' formal acceptance of their 10-year biodiversity action plans and frameworks Step 5: Implementation of five new on-the-ground biodiversity interventions by the end of the three- year project These reports create a unique opportunity for profiling the importance of urban biodiversity, and innovation in its management, on a global scale. They are the foundation not only of the long-term plans that each city will develop to enhance, protect and develop their urban biodiversity, but also collectively form the basis for the development of LAB as a highly effective global urban biodiversity initiative. LAB Project Team May 2007 Cape Town 4 BIODIVERSITY REPORT | CITY OF ZAGREB | 2008 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. ECOLOGY of Education, Culture and Sports, City Office for Strategy Planning and City Development. The Zagreb area has habitats, flora and fauna typical of the southern parts of Central Europe exposed to A single public institution for the management of all influences from the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the protected natural values in the territory of the City of Mediterranean, and the Pannonian plain. Zagreb has not yet been established. Despite fast and dynamic urban development and Biodiversity as a topic on the city's agenda appears in transformation of space, many natural and semi-natural particular when preparing and adopting physical plans habitats have been preserved. Among them are those and other documents regulating protected aspects of that are protected according to the Habitats Directive, nature, land-use planning documents, the Bern Convention and EUROBATS especially important environmental impact assessment studies, and the on the European level. environmental protection documents. The wider area surrounding the City of Zagreb (which Viewing protection of areas and individual species as a is larger than the area under review) features 1,709 potentially efficient instrument in biological and plant species, not counting algae, fungi, lichens and landscape diversity protection, 34 protected areas have mosses. Consequently, the City of Zagreb area alone been designated (in 6 categories, i.e. 19% of the City's should be very rich in plant species; the exact number, area). however, will be established only through systematic inventory. Altogether 196 species, i.e. 11% of the total In addition to legally protected areas, physical plans possible flora, appear on the lists of potential species design and set out special measures for the layer with important for protection. different categories like valuable parks, gardens, alleys and individual components of nature in order to The city's fauna is generally less well-studied than the preserve natural values and biodiversity. flora. The best known groups are land snails, crustaceans, butterflies, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, Taking into account the City of Zagreb's growth and birds and mammals. Up to this time more than 120 development trend as well as the City policy priorities, species have been recorded as potentially important for it is necessary to implement more efficient measures for protection: 33 species are threatened on international, the integration of the "nature protection sector" and European and national levels and 87 species are listed in their work into other sectors, in order to streamline Annex I of the Birds Directive as well as Annexes II and efforts and create conditions for the effective IV of the Habitats Directive and some are locally biodiversity conservation.