FOUNDATION CONSERVATION CARPATHIA Annual Report 2019 2009-2019 Contents
Foreword 6
Conservation 9 Ecological 31 Wildlife 45 Outreach and 75 Conservation 107 Financial report 133 restoration Programme Communication Enterprise Programme
Introduction 10 Objectives and philosophy of 32 Introduction 47 Introduction 76 Introduction 108 Income sources 134 FCC’s restoration programme
Endangered Landscapes 11 Ecological restoration facts 36 Wildlife conservation 52 Timber industry – NGO platform 78 Food hub and other preparations 110 Expenses 136 Programme/EU-LIFE 2019
Reintroducing bison 55 A glimpse of major events 80 Cobor Biodiversity Farm 113 Land purchase 16 during the past year
Wildlife management 60 Wildlife hides 125 Plans for 2020 139 Conservation easements 18 Volunteers 99
Wildlife monitoring 66 Next steps 140 Forest watch 20 Education centre and activities 100
Leaota 24 Awards 104
Râul Târgului – Argeșel – 28 Râușor Natura 2000 site FOUNDATION CONSERVATION CARPATHIA ANNUAL REPORT Foreword
by Barbara & Christoph Promberger Executive Directors of FCC
FCC has grown organically as an increase in human - wildlife conflicts basis, but involving the corporate organisation and we are now in a in parts of our hunting concessions; companies means also involving situation where we are earning the due to a combination of different all their employees, who become fruits of the hard work of the previous factors including warmer winters ambassadors for the National Park years: throughout 2019, we could rely and less snow, a lack of beech mast idea. on 23 different funding sources. This during the last years, and possibly makes our situation very stable and other factors, wild boar numbers And last, but not least, the we do not depend on the well-being have soared and bear behaviour international political situation is of one or two individual donors or seems to have changed. This has also moving in a good direction: fear running into financial problems led to a situation in which boars the new European Commission has if one of our funding streams should and bears increasingly showed announced the Green Deal, which end. At times, where most Romanian up around the villages, destroyed will lead to political development conservation NGOs struggle to pastureland, and killed livestock. coherent with FCC’s proposals. We survive, we are in an excellent Despite the establishment of our are convinced, that this will bring a position. rapid intervention teams, damage on lot of support for nature and forest a local level became very frequent conservation. At the start of the ELP activities with consequent strong local and first stakeholder meetings with opposition against wildlife in one of Thank you for supporting the work local communities, we encountered the communities. A local outbreak of of FCC, enjoy reading through the a difficult situation with some of the African Swine Fever didn’t help chapters of our work in 2019! the local communities: some groups much either and contributed to the of people, who have economic or negative attitude towards wildlife. personal interests in opposing our Despite all that, however, a study by © Enya Promberger National Park concept, started a our Newfoundland colleague Prof. Dr. campaign against FCC by spreading Alistair Bath showed that attitudes incorrect information and scaring of local residents towards bison After an absence of more than two been already beneficiary of a local communities with erroneous reintroduction are very positive with centuries, the first bison arrived LIFE project from 2012 - 2019 and rumours of restrictions of a National over 75% of the people welcoming back in the Făgăraș Mountains in in early 2019 submitted a second Park. This resulted in some of the the return of the bison. This suggests, November 2019: four animals were project. January was an intense mayors or presidents of land-owner that local people are generally transported from a wildlife park period with finalising the proposal associations, who had not yet met us, positive towards wildlife, just want in Germany and moved into our and the rest of the year was busy refusing to even talk to us. The good the problems to be resolved. We quarantine and acclimatisation spent preparing for the start of the news, however, was that in those are positive that once our wildlife enclosures in Dâmbovita Valley, project. In November, all outstanding villages where we have been active management is fully up and running followed by another seven bison questions had been answered and for years and where people know us, and measures of prevention, from Poland. This is a monumental we could sign the contract for the these false rumours had little effect damage control, and innovative milestone in restoring the Făgăraș largest LIFE project in the history and these anti-groups weren’t taken compensation are taking effect, this Mountains to their full ecological of the European Union. In parallel, seriously. This highlights the trust we area can develop into a model region capacity and only the prelude to we started implementation for the have built in recent years and the for human - wildlife coexistence. reintroductions in other parts of our project financed by the Endangered positive image FCC continues to gain project area. By the end of 2019 we Landscape Programme. With through its work. But it also shows Another important milestone during had everything prepared to release these two contracts (and dozens that there is still a lot of work to do the last year was the development the bison in May 2020 into the wild. of additional supporting charities, and that we also need to develop of a much closer link to Romanian private donors, and corporates), our activities in those communities where corporations. We have hired a The European Union has a project has now achieved financial we are yet to be recognised. corporate relations manager in April funding instrument called LIFE to stability for the next five years and and the results of Cristina’s work are implement conservation measures can finance the majority of the Another issue which created stunning. This is not only positive in Natura 2000 areas. FCC has conservation masterplan’s activities. challenges was the dramatic with respect to a broader financial
6 7 ANNUAL REPORT Valea Tămașului, Făgăraș Mountains © Răzavan Rohan © Răzavan Mountains Făgăraș Tămașului, Valea Conservation
Introduction 10
Endangered Landscapes Programme/EU-LIFE 11
Land purchase 16
Conservation Easements 18
Forest Watch 20
Leaota 24
Râul Târgului – Argeșel – Râușor Natura 2000 site 28
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Introduction Endangered Landscapes Programme/ EU-LIFE
Our activities throughout the entire valleys to become active throughout In early 2019, we signed a five-year of the Oak Foundation, and other changes, we were invited for the CARPATHIA project have grown the Făgăraș Mountains, which will financing contract worth over US existing funds. We joined forces with kick-off meeting in Brussels in early tremendously during the last two put tens of thousands of hectares of $5m for the Endangered Landscapes ProPark Foundation, Conservation October, and finally signed the years and it has become a challenge additional land under protection. Programme (ELP), a conservation Capital, and the Argeș County contract in December. to stay on course with all these new programme administrated by the Gendarmerie to gain the expertise activities. Cambridge Conservation Initiative needed for the various activities. With a total amount of 27.6 and financed by Arcadia – a After we passed the first hurdle With the new activities we also charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and with our project concept in October million Euro and an EU developed a much larger team - Peter Baldwin. This was an important 2018, we were invited to submit a full contribution of 9.3 million more staff, more departments, and step towards implementing our new LIFE project proposal by the end of more external project partners, who masterplan, however the grant was January. Given the complexity and Euro, this is one of the then joined us in our initiative to not yet sufficient to cover all the size of the overall project, this was largest (if not the largest) create the European Yellowstone planned activities over an area of an extremely tight schedule and park. Consequently, we often had 250,000 hectares. required the input of a large team. LIFE project in the history to sit down and re-analyse the Some of the actions (out of a total of of the European Union. situation in order not to lose focus As mentioned in our previous annual 43 proposed activities), such as the and make sure the conservation of report, we have been planning from reintroduction of bison and beavers land and wildlife remains the core the beginning to complement the in three different localities, were We are proud for Romania and we of our activities. And we believe we ELP grant with a second EU-LIFE considerably larger than other full are proud for FCC! managed very well: project. Since there is no upper LIFE projects elsewhere. On January limit for a LIFE project, we decided 30th, 22 minutes prior to the final to put all our eggs in one basket deadline, and after 28 uninterrupted, In 2018 and 2019, we updated our and developed an appropriate extremely intense days and nights in conservation masterplan and now have LIFE application, which would fully January alone, we pressed the button cover our revised masterplan. The and uploaded the final version of the a well-structured work plan for the next necessary co-financing from our proposal. five years. side (in a project of this magnitude we were told we would have to In June, we received news from come up with over 60% co-funding) the Commission that the proposal The most important element of would consist of the ELP grant, needed some amendments and this plan was that we enlarged the funds available from the Wyss clarifications, but in principle it had original core area of Piatra Craiului Foundation and other donors for been accepted. After several rounds National Park and Iezer-Păpușa land purchase, funds from a grant of clarifications, explanations, and Mountains with their descending
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Endangered Landscapes Programme/EU-LIFE Develop Continued a new economy
To develop a new economy based on conservation, which combines local economic development and creation of jobs with the long-term conservation goals of the Făgăraș Mountains. Active conservation
To execute active conservation measures for Golden Eagle and their prey species: marmots and capercaillie.
Foster Raise ecological integrity public awareness To raise public awareness for To foster the ecological integrity of conservation and to build positive the Făgăraș Mountains by removing relationships with local communities at least 50% of all riparian invasive to achieve conservation through the species from two mountain valleys. Create human-wildlife existing Natura 2000 sites and a future national park. coexistence model
To create a model of human-wildlife coexistence over ca. 80,000 ha by replacing trophy hunting with a system of damage prevention, rapid intervention for direct Accelerate conflict mitigation, and innovative compensation measures. rewilding
To accelerate re-wilding processes by purchasing and restoring 1,300 ha of degraded areas. Principal project objectives are:
Save natural forests
To save >2,000 ha of natural forests in the Făgăraș Mountains by purchasing and protecting them. Since the beginning of December, we have been working on implementing this project, which will keep us busy for the next five years. Opposite page: Dâmbovița Valley © George Soare; Current page: Capercaillie © Dan Dinu
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Făgăraș Mountains © Matei Buță
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Land Forests purchased purchase for full protection 2007-2019 Chart 1
2019 was a very successful Total surface under permanent protection, year with respect to land saved from logging: purchase: 2,055 hectares comprising 108 different 25,132 ha parcels were purchased for conservation, which was the second-best year since we purchased the first properties in 2007.
This is mainly due to the fact that we enlarged our target area from Piatra Craiului, Dâmbovita Valley, Leresti Valley, and Iezer-Păpușa Mountains into the neighbouring communes to the west, Nucșoara and Arefu. Out of these 2,055 ha, ca. 10% were alpine grass and shrublands, 27% clear-cuts, and the rest managed and natural forests. We are confident we can purchase at least the same amount again in 2020.
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Conservation easements
Conservation easements is a term and concept which is widely used in North America but is not very well known here in Europe. The idea is that the state or a conservation organisation pays a certain amount of money to a landowner for full protection of the land with the idea of compensating him for the economic losses he experiences by protecting his property. FCC has started first negotiations in late 2019 with landowners in order to sign such contracts for conservation easements throughout 2020.
Current page: Spruce forest © FCC; Opposite page: Mountain community © Călin Șerban
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Forest watch
One of the main tasks of our rangers still remains watching over the land - by the end of 2019 this comprised a total of 24,060 ha, of which 95% are forested.
Our CARPATHIA Forest Service has Of the total amount of trees cut, 10% to follow the traditional Romanian were left by the culprits in the forest. organisational system of forestry. In previous years, the average annual Each ranger has a specific forest amount of wood illegally cut from area under his responsibility, forests administrated by CARPATHIA which is on average around 1,500 was 200 cubic metres. Most likely, hectares. The smallest safeguarded the rather mild winter and our policy area, which is challenging due to to give firewood at very low prices its closeness to some very poor to disadvantaged members of the communities, is about 600 hectares communities helped in decreasing in size, while the largest one has over the theft of firewood from our forests. 2,400 hectares, extending into some Considering the large area, the very remote areas. actual problems are insignificant.
According to the field The presence of our rangers in the area is crucial to protect the forests monitoring carried but it is often disapproved of by out by the district chief some neighbouring forest managers that fear irregularities may be rangers, less than 87 observed. Thus, at the beginning cubic metres of wood of the year, we were confronted with an unsettling assault against were illegally cut in the one of our rangers, when a group forests administrated by of forestry workers attempted to pull him out of the car and verbally Carpathia throughout harass him. He and his family also 2019. received threats and the case is now under prosecutor’s investigation, fully supported by FCC. About 60% of these illegal actions were discovered directly by the rangers and complaints were made to the Police, leading to 15 fines charged to illegal loggers amounting to 6,000 Euro.
Opposite page: FCC rangers in Valea Fiasului © Călin Șerban; Current page: FCC Ranger © Răzvan Rohan
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Sătic lake © George Soare
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Leaota Conservation and Communication and restoration of habitats public awareness
While land purchase was limited We have also progressed in engaging We continued the implementation of the this year to the acquisition of 60 with the local communities, which ha of alpine pastures, we focused are very important partners for Conservation and Restoration Plan for on increasing the protection status the conservation area. As well the Leaota area, where forests and alpine of the Wildland properties and the as consultation meetings about surrounding areas. The new forest common strategies for a future pastures are purchased by Wildland Ltd management plans we drew up nature-based development of the and managed by FCC according to the for over 2,000 ha in the core of the area with the mayors of Stoenești, Wildland area were approved and Cetățeni, Runcu and Moroieni CARPATHIA Masterplan, vision/mission will be enforced in the field starting communes, FCC participated in and main objectives. in January 2020. Also, changing local events such as the Răvășitul the human land-use practices (e.g. Oilor (Sheep Descent) Festivity in halting deforestation and grazing in Runcu commune in late September. forests) and the ongoing patrolling While we contributed to these events through our rangers contributed to mainly by providing informative a better conservation of the Leaota activities related to the importance area. of conservation and increasing the awareness for the intrinsic On the restoration side, we continued values of nature, it also gave us the to replant clear-cut forest stands and opportunity to engage with the local extended our capacity to obtain, over residents and to listen and learn the long-term, about one third of the about their views and needs, which required saplings from our own tree made the events both memorable nurseries, as well as one greenhouse. and successful.
Opposite page: Panoramic view of Leaota Mountains © Oliviu Pop; Current page: Cheile Crovului © Dan Dinu
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Leaota Continued
Leaota wildlife
In spring this year, Wildland joined FCC in its endeavour to lease two additional hunting concessions, one of which is located in parts of Leaota. As in all the hunting areas managed by CARPATHIA, we stopped trophy hunting and focused instead on managing human - wildlife conflicts with the help of a rapid intervention team especially dedicated to the western Leaota Mountain area. In this respect, wild boar hunting concentrated on eliminating boars that damaged the pastures, orchards and gardens nearby or close to the main localities – Dragoslavele, Stoenești, Bădeni and Cetățeni. On several nights, the team had to push bears out of the Dragoslavele commune and in one case a single bear attacked and killed livestock in the Stoenești area.
Leaota is an important refuge for large carnivores and consequently also forms part of the study area of FCCs general wildlife monitoring programme. In particular, the camera traps installed for non- invasive monitoring of lynx delivered fascinating data on a variety of species, the most abundant being ungulates and wolves. The images also revealed the presence of a female black dog travelling with a pack of wolves and most likely some hybrid offspring, representing a conservation challenge of its own.
Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) © BCP
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Râul Târgului – Argeșel – Râușor Natura 2000 site
The project “Elaboration of the We have also finished the awareness management plan of the protected campaigns, both among adults and area ROSCI0381 River Târgului students. Schools from the seven - Argeşel - Râuşor “, started in communes/villages were visited by June 2017 and co-financed by the our communication team which European Regional Development organised interactive workshops Fund under the Large Infrastructure concerning the protected area: Operational Program 2014 - 2020, is thematic games, videos about the slowly coming to an end. habitats and wildlife, a useful area guide that students can continue We have completed all the field studies to study in Geography or Natural Science classes, and a poster series. and the monitoring plan as well as the Also, they had informal meetings management plan, which have all been with the local residents and distributed communication materials submitted to the authorities. regarding the importance of the area. As an integrative part of the After the loss of custodianship, management plan, a database of taken over by the National Agency species and habitats within the site for Protected Areas (ANANP), and and distribution maps have also despite some adverse legislative been developed. During May and changes, the project continued and June, the management plan was will be implemented until its end. subjected to public debates in the Since the process was delayed by community of Lerești, Argeș County. several factors, we have asked and We had about 30 participants each obtained a postponement of the time and some of them proposed project until the autumn of 2020, modifications, which were included when the results of the project will in the plan within the legal frame finally be transferred to ANANP, permitted. After completion, the which is then supposed to take care management plan was submitted to of implementing all the activities. the Argeș Environmental Protection Agency.
28 29 Argeșel-Râușor © Oliviu Pop ANNUAL REPORT Abusive clear-cut © Matei Buță clear-cut © Matei Abusive
Ecological restoration
Objectives and philosophy of FCC’s restoration programme 31
Ecological restoration facts 2019 36
31 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
Objectives The overall goal of the forest restoration activities is to bring and philosophy of FCC’s back the natural forest com- restoration programme position in areas affected by almost a century of intensive forestry, forests that are much stronger in the face of storms, their resilience to climate change and with a higher de- gree of biodiversity.
Riparian habitat
Degraded riparian habitat along the mountain rivers. Spruce monocultures
Mainly, the forest areas targeted by Young stands of spruce monocultures We have: our restoration are: from 5 to 70 years’ old.
Clear-cuts Planted
Clear-cuts with almost no natural regeneration, and in some cases also 1.8 million affected by years of grazing with sheep and cows. saplings on over 700 hectares of clear-cut areas.
Kick-started the conversion of spruce monocultures into more natural stands on over 450 hectares.
Restored riparian habitat along 17 kilometers of mountain valleys.
Riparian habitat © Sandra Bartocha
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All our restoration activities are based on a thorough assessment of the present and the past. We gather all the available information on the natural types of forests in the targeted areas, using old forest management plans, satellite images, and the information from neighbouring old forest stands. We then do a full inventory of the existing species and their proportion and take into consideration adaptation to climate change when planning the right proportion of species to be replanted. Evidently, we try to ensure all activities are kept to the minimum invasiveness possible.
Spruce forest © Daniel Rosengren
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Ecological restoration facts 2019
Tree nurseries Replanting clear-cuts Spruce monocultures conversion
The production of saplings in our During spring and tree nurseries was a challenging task autumn, we succeeded Many forests have been subject We also started cutting in some during the past three to four years. to forest management within the young spruce regeneration areas At the start of 2016 we experienced in replanting a total of past 100 years and thousands of and plantations of around 20 a lack of viable seeds from the 103 hectares of clear- hectares of mixed forests have been hectares in order to diminish the main species, most probably due transformed into spruce-dominated proportion of the spruces in an area to climate change. Also, the lack of felled forests, mainly in cultures with low biodiversity. where the natural forest is mainly snow in winter and big temperature the Dâmbovița Valley at beech. differences during spring and summer are affecting the growth of altitudes of between 1,250 We are also trying to re-wild these areas saplings in the nurseries. and 1,650 metres by carefully opening up small pockets in The total area effectively cultivated in the spruce canopy and replanting with An extremely dedicated team of beech, elm, sycamore, fir, and rowan. our nurseries in 2019 amounted to about FCC rangers and more than 200 2 local residents worked together and 3,400 m over 14 different allotments, We have continued to slowly convert managed to plant over 400,000 the artificial monocultures back to a resulting in the creation of an estimated saplings (mainly beech, fir, spruce, mixed and healthy mountain forest. and sycamore), kick-starting the 250,000 saplings by the end of the The general plan is to intervene on return of majestic forests to the 110 hectares of spruce monocultures production cycle. Făgăraș Mountains. In summer, the and the trees proposed for extraction saplings needed further attention were marked. In 2019, we managed when the grass grew more than Around 120,000 young spruce to create pockets of light on 28 1-metre high and we had to cut the saplings are ready to be translocated hectares by cutting down young grass around the saplings to avoid from our greenhouse into the spruce, debarking it and leaving suffocation. nurseries in spring 2020. it in the forest as dead wood, so important for biodiversity. Beach, When restoring clear-cuts, we also fir and sycamore saplings will be repair the scars in the forest floor planted in autumn 2020 to complete caused by tractors extracting logs, by the restoration process on those filling up ravines with wooden debris, areas. gravel, and soil from the ramparts along the tracks. As a final step, the tracks are replanted and as such we have managed to completely halt erosion along over 5 km of these logging tracks in the Făgăraș Mountains, mainly in the Vidraru area.
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Tree nursery © Daniel Rosengren
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Clear-cut © Ondrej Kameniar
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Seasonal workers restoring clear-cuts © Florin Nicolae
42 43 ANNUAL REPORT © Dan Dinu arctos) (Ursus Brown bear Brown
Wildlife programme
Introduction 47
Wildlife conservation 52
Reintroducing bison 55
Wildlife management 60
Wildlife monitoring 66
45 WILDLIFE PROGRAMME
© BCP lupus) (Canis Introduction Wolf Wolf
Since the end of 2011, FCC has been leasing hunting concessions in the core of the project area to protect and manage wildlife populations, including Europe’s most charismatic species such as bears, wolves, and lynx. With this fantastic opportunity we have also taken on a big responsibility to ensure that wildlife and people can co- exist and thrive. Protecting wildlife and at the same time reducing conflicts, based on scientific monitoring and involving local communities concerning management decisions, is our approach to ensure this unique fauna remains a visible and valued part of the system.
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49 Chamois © Daniel Rosengren WILDLIFE PROGRAMME ANNUAL REPORT
Red deer © Călin Șerban
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Wildlife Anti-poaching conservation activities To adequately watch over the much In addition, according to rumours larger area, we have doubled the in the villages, poachers nowadays number of rangers last year and are very well equipped with efficient partnered with the Gendarmerie to night vision devices. Despite run joint patrols in the area. One the difficulties, only one case of problem the teams encountered is poaching was recorded throughout an increasing pressure from off-road 2019, in which a wild boar which vehicle drivers trying to access the was shot was identified. The case area on a multitude of tracks, even was reported and taken over by during the night. Due to several the Police. With funding from the groups of wild boars showing up near new LIFE project, our anti-poaching settlements in different areas at the team will be able to upgrade to the same time, it was also challenging at most recent technical solutions and times to keep the response time low will continue to efficiently combat so poaching could be avoided. poaching.
New hunting concessions
Our project has leased wildlife ban on sport and trophy hunting on management concessions ‘21 over 68,000 ha, and, instead, focus Izvoarele Dâmboviței’ since 2011 and on resolution of conflicts between ‘22 Rucăr’ since 2017. In spring 2019, wildlife and humans in the rural we signed a collaboration agreement villages. Together with neighbouring with the hunters’ association GTS Piatra Craiului National Park, we Păpușa Leaota, who are leaseholders have now created over 80,000 ha of of wildlife management concessions the largest area in Romania free of ‘18 Râul Târgului’ (Lerești Valley) any sport and trophy hunting. Given and ‘20 Stoenești’ (Western Leaota), the measures we will take towards and took over responsibility for reducing human-livestock conflicts management of these two areas and involving local people in favour comprising 22,850 ha and 21,400 ha, of wildlife management, this area respectively. could develop into a model area for a new wildlife management system This enlargement has now resulted for all of Romania. in a total of four hunting concessions in leasehold by the CARPATHIA project and we can implement a
Opposite page: Valea Vladului, Iezer Mountains © Dan Dinu; Current page: Chamois monitoring © Călin Șerban
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Reintroducing Bison © Daniel Mîrlea Bison bison
Bringing the missing After obtaining all the necessary The bison is considered mammal species back to permits, our dedicated team a keystone species for managed to build - with a significant the Făgăraș Mountains effort that is not to be ignored - the restoring and maintaining is one of the goals of our quarantine compound and a 130ha the integrity of ecosystems acclimatisation enclosure, which wildlife programme. also allows access to some alpine and increasing habitat pastures. In November we finally heterogeneity of the area, Throughout the last centuries, received the first four bison from European bison (Bison bonasus) have a reserve in Germany, two young benefitting a variety of been hunted to extinction in the males and two females. Another other species. wild, with the last individual roaming seven individuals (four females, the Transylvanian hills being shot three males) from Poland joined the We will closely monitor the impact in 1790. Only a few dozen survived group in December, including two of Europe’s mega-herbivore and in different zoos and all bison females descendant from the free- hope that we can contribute to today go back to only 12 founder roaming population of Bieszczady re-establishing a viable population animals. Following two successful Mountains. The herd will spend of this magnificent species in the reintroduction initiatives in the their first winter in the Romanian Făgăraș Mountains. country, we intend to release within Carpathians in the acclimatisation the next five years a minimum of 75 enclosure where our rangers can bison to three different sites in the still keep a close eye on them and eastern Făgăraș Mountains. provide some supplementary food. If all goes well, their release into the In 2019, we were able to make the wild is scheduled for May 2020, when first steps by choosing a suitable we will finally open all the gates. reintroduction site in the Bunea- Two individuals are equipped with Comisu region, right in FCC’s core a GPS collar, which will allow us to area, which will expose the bison keep track of their movements in the to a variety of habitats during their critical period when the herd starts stay in an acclimatisation enclosure exploring its new home. before being released into the wild.
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Bison © Daniel Mîrlea 56 57 WILDLIFE PROGRAMME ANNUAL REPORT
Current and opposite page: Bison © Daniel Mîrlea
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Wildlife management
Prevention
In our conflict mitigation approach, While electric fences do keep away the priority lies in trying to prevent wildlife, the challenge is to install damage and livestock depredation them before the damage happens. from the start by making use of Wherever electric fences were the vast experience that already set up after incidents with bears, exists in a variety of projects and the behaviour of these predators implementing those methods that changed instantly, and no more have worked best considering the problems occurred. Likewise, local conditions. Shepherd dogs vulnerable farms where the team have been used to effectively installed electric fences for reasons protect livestock in the mountains of precaution remained unharmed. for centuries. To maintain or even With wild boar it is even harder improve their quality, we have to be one step ahead: being very started a breeding programme clever and numerous, management of Carpathian Shepherd dogs, of the conflicts with this species will also called Carpatin, at our always have to be a combination of Cobor Biodiversity Farm. This different methods, including hunting, impressive livestock guarding dog gustative and acoustic repellents and is characterised by being very permanent electric fences in selected attentive and confident with large areas or certain seasons. With the predators, but at the same by new LIFE funding, we will be able to socialising well with livestock and equip a much larger part of farms at being unaggressive with humans. risk with electric fences. Our four Carpatin females gave birth to no less than 22 gorgeous pups, some of which will also be the future guardians of the Cobor cattle and horses. But most of the livestock Philosophy defenders to-be were delivered at the age of 8 to 10 weeks to their Full protection of species that damaging and potentially dangerous new workplaces – shepherd camps interact with humans or local animals and have comparably and farms around the Făgăraș communities and potentially cause high wildlife acceptance levels. In Mountains, where they spent the damage to properties, livestock or a changing world, the challenge first months socialising with their even lives, can be very controversial. is to keep this balance for the future protégés and learning from We have therefore elaborated a benefit of both. Unlike traditional the elders. Throughout 2019 we number of principles on which we hunting management, we therefore distributed a total of 18 pups to seven base all our wildlife management encourage targeting all available different livestock owners and our decisions, always keeping the tools and measures towards resolving team will monitor their development safety of people as one of the conflicts with human interests and to and performance until they are fully highest priorities. While protection include community representatives grown. of all wildlife from sport and in basic management decisions. trophy hunting is one of our main Prevention – Intervention – Another method proven to be objectives, interactions between Compensation! very effective, both for minimising humans and wildlife are inevitable, livestock depredation through large and the core of our activities is to carnivores as well as protecting crops make sure damages are avoided or and agricultural areas from damage reduced to a minimum. People in the through wild boar, is the use of Carpathian Mountain regions have temporary electric fences. a long record of co-existing with
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Wildlife management Overall incidents Continued Chart 2
Wild boar 62%
Bears 36%
Wolves 2% Intervention teams
The year 2019 was certainly a rough for lethal removal of one bear and one for our rapid intervention team approval was eventually granted. and the local gendarmerie – as Consequently, our team killed well as for the livestock owners and one medium-sized four-year-old farmers in the region. We registered female bear, after the individual a total of 115 cases of wildlife conflict was observed right at the edge of that included damage among the Rucăr commune. This case also livestock, crops or properties, the confirms that traditional trophy vast majority of them in the Rucăr hunting, which is aiming at shooting community. While wolf depredation big, old trophy bears in remote Bear incidents seems to play a minor role in the corners of the forest, would not Chart 3, 4 entire area – only two attacks on resolve human - wildlife conflicts, as sheep were recorded – conflicts with often argued. bears and wild boar were numerous Livestock 32 and persistent. More numerous (71 cases), though less intimidating, were the Buildings 7 Also, the amount of livestock killed interventions following herds of wild Orchards 2 by bears has increased dramatically boar ploughing through people’s compared to that of previous years. pastures and gardens. The rapid No less than 36 sheep, 10 cows, 21 intervention team registered and pigs, one donkey and 11 rabbits fell evaluated a total of 71 ha of dug up prey to bears, with a peak of the soil, ranging from a few thousand damage occuring in late autumn/ square metres to over 10 ha per early winter. Especially worrying was property – a significant part of the the fact that most of the incidents productive land in the case of some happened within or in the outskirts farms. With the increase in wild of villages and bears often forced boar numbers in the past years, and their way into wooden shelters, the threat of the rapidly expanding stables and even vacant huts and African swine fever spilling over to houses. One can only speculate domestic pigs, the state authorities about the reasons for the increase demanded high hunting quotas from in conflicts in recent years and most all the game managers. To fulfil these likely it is a combination of several quotas and to reduce conflicts at the factors. The extremely mild winters same time, FCC’s rapid intervention certainly contribute by shortening team organised hunts together the hibernation period of bears and with local hunters mainly in private prolonging the den entry period, orchards, gardens, and pastures in which has also been shown in other close vicinity to the most affected areas to be the highest risk period for communities and as such hunted a bear conflicts. total of 112 wild boars.
The rapid intervention team always evaluated the damage and offered help by installing electric fences and trying to deter bears with noise and rubber bullets to avoid repeated attacks. Due to persisting problems, we decided to ask for a derogation from the Ministry of Environment
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Wildlife management Continued
Damage compensation
FCC rangers are usually part Therefore, in 2019 we compensated of the Commission for damage farmers up to a total amount of evaluation and compensation, so 30,480 lei/6,310 Euro, which also affected farmers receive the official included some payments granted compensation payments foreseen for damages on buildings caused by the state in cases of livestock by bears. In parallel, we try to link damage, even though this process the compensation payments to the takes a long time. For damages willingness of landowners to improve on crops and agricultural fields the fencing of their properties, caused by wild boar though, state especially in areas that are right at compensation is irrelevant, and the edge of the forest. we therefore established a private compensation system through our hunting associations.
Opposite page: Wild boar © Ovidiu Șandor; Current page: Flock of sheep © FCC
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Wildlife monitoring
Providing reliable population size and density estimates for large carnivores and possibly also their most important prey species has been an important aspect of FCC’s wildlife programme for many years, to prove that a science-based monitoring programme can be established on a significantly large area and to demonstrate wildlife management decisions can and need to be taken based on objective data. In 2019 we focused our efforts mainly on lynx, for which we finished two camera trapping sessions, and on red deer, for which we collected non-invasive DNA samples with the goal of estimating population size for the first time based on genetics.
Stag © Daniel Mîrlea Eurasian lynx Red deer Wolf
For the lynx, the most elusive large about 120,000 ha and delivering Firm data on population sizes for Because the baseline survey from carnivore, we used camera traps thousands of wildlife images. In both red deer are missing across all of Winter 2017/2018 showed gaps in the to detect individuals based on periods, on around 150 occasions, Europe. Therefore, we tested to see distribution of the wolf packs (see their unique coat pattern. In the lynx passed by our cameras and if genotyping non-invasive DNA here), we organised a second survey first session (January-April), which the improved image quality allowed samples from faecal pellets is an running from December 2019 to April also encompassed the mating identification of the lynx in over efficient tool to evaluate population 2020. We set a target of 300 samples season, we tried to maximize 80% of cases. Consequently, we parameters for this species. Between to map the four packs identified detection and to identify the created a catalogue consisting June and September, we collected during the baseline survey, and to best trap locations for long-term of 23 independent lynx, including approx. 200 faecal pellets in a pilot assess if there are more packs at the monitoring. With this knowledge, several females with their offspring. area of 10,000 ha. The samples edges of our study area. The lack of we ran the second session during Good recapture rates per individual are currently being genotyped in a snow during this winter turned out to October - December (pre-mating allowed us to use powerful specialist genetic laboratory at the be a real challenge for snow tracking season) to capture solely the local statistical models to obtain good University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. In and slowed down sampling quite a population, and thus comply with approximations on real population the optimistic case that we obtain bit, but we are optimistic in reaching the mark-recapture modelling rules sizes. While the scientific report on a genotyping success rate of >60%, the envisaged target by the end of for estimating robust population these results is work in progress for we will replicate the genetic survey the monitoring period. Prior to wolf parameters. During each of these 2020, initial density estimates for the in 2020 within an area of 45 000 monitoring, we also collected 30 dog two sessions, two camera traps were lynx population in our study area ha, which is more representative for reference samples from the study installed at 59 and 76 locations have been calculated and range the movement capabilities of this area to improve dog-wolf genotype respectively, covering an area of between 1.6 and 1.7 individuals/100 species. assignment and to check for any square km. hybridization patterns between them.
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A wildlife ranger backtracking wolves on snow for collecting non-invasive DNA samples, Făgăraș Mountains © Ruben Iosif
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A wildlife ranger collecting wolf urine sample, Făgăraș Mountains © Ruben Iosif
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Camera traps, Făgăraș Mountains © FCC
72 73 ANNUAL REPORT © Alexandru Tanasie © Alexandru
Outreach and Communication
Introduction 76
Timber Industry – NGO platform 78
A glimpse of major events during the past year 80
Volunteers 99
Education centre and activities 100
Awards 104
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Introduction We need a sustainable, Keep a close eye on our website, circular economy and Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, and if you want to see have to stop believing more, subscribe to our monthly field in the need for never- reports at [email protected]. ending economic growth with ever-growing use of natural resources. We need to learn to trust, to associate, to work together for the greater good of a community, not just for individual benefit. And we need to become much more careful about the resources we consume and make sure we do not overuse them. Fighting for conservation automatically implies fighting against those who do not care about sustainability, who do not care about community, who want to use the existing resources in the short term for their own personal gain. As a result of our activities, these individuals fight back, and as they do not have any hard arguments, they spread fake-news, rumours and lies. They try to influence local people and create fear of us. For this reason, the success of our work depends on working intensely with local communities, no matter whether they are convinced or sceptical about what we do. We just want to be judged by our results, not by rumours or myths. This report is the Five pillars of activity and Dialogue, transparency and many But times are changing. Humanity applied daily work of 79 permanent ten years of conservation! explanations about our project and can no longer afford to do what we employees and hundreds of others. our intentions are necessary. This have done in the past and nature What would all our results be without is for two reasons: conservation is is starting to show us the yellow Our outreach and communication communication and without bonding still not considered a priority for card. It is time to listen, to reflect, to plans include human dimensions people together? many Romanians, and people have understand and to find the best way research, a dialogue platform, been cheated again and again to behave as a true part of nature. organising local and national events, by investors, who told people that ecological education programmes, they will do something good for volunteering and ambassadors’ them, but actually just robbed programmes, job opportunities them of their precious resources. and, last, but not least, our day-to- It is understandable that many day presence in the communities. have a hard time believing that Many of our team are part of these an organisation buys thousands of communities and by owning land in hectares of forests just for the sake these communities, we also have a of protecting them. responsibility for these people.
Elder women harvesting potatoes, Făgăraș Mountains © Cornelia Dörr
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Timber industry – NGO platform
After initially getting off to a good During the meeting in June, we start, the discussion platform of the decided on four thematic workshops timber industry and NGOs struggled - Forest Inventory, Forest Policy, to make progress at the beginning Traceability, and Virgin Forests/ of 2019. During the meetings, all Forests in National Parks and the participants felt the platform protected areas. The first workshop was important and needed further concerning the forest inventory was development, and the outcomes of held in October with the involvement the meetings were good; however, of specialists from the team which once everybody was back in their had previously implemented the office, other priorities took over and last and very controversial forest whatever had been discussed in inventory. As a follow-up, the group the group remained unacted upon requested a clear statement from the until the next meeting. In order to Ministry of Environment with respect overcome this roadblock and to to the inventory. A big thank you move the programme forward, we to our facilitator Alistair Bath, who decided to set up a small secretariat continues to drive the group forward. to organise meetings, follow up on them, consult with authorities and invite specialists to give their point of view. FCC took over this task and Nicoleta Dobre was appointed secretary of the platform, while ProPark Foundation helps with their expertise.
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A glimpse of major events during the past year
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Untamed Romania
ALPIN FILM FESTIVAL: films, books, photography
“Regăsește The European The presidents Brașov Heroes Natural disaster Carpathian MTB Răvășitul oilor Presenting Bisons are back New LIFE România” Nature Trust visit of FCC visit & Bikeathon in Rucăr Bike (Sheep Descent) CARPATHIA in the Făgăraș contract National Făgăraș at Runcu Mountains Conference (“Re-discover Innovative Trofeul Munților Folk Rock Fest Large carnivore Romania”) wildlife DHL Carpathian (National Piatra Craiului Făgăraș Fest International conference management Marathon Sport Tourism participation Championship) events Făgăraș County Electric Experience Conferences Lerești Camping - full auction Commune moon camping annual fest and the Egg Pretzel festival Medical centre for Moroieni
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Opposite page: Walking tour in Dâmbovicioara (Electric camping) © George Soare; Current page: Regăsește România © Liviu Ungureanu
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Highlights: A glimpse of major events during the past year Continued We have participated in 10 external events.
We have organised JANUARY-FEBRUARY FEBRUARY-MARCH MARCH Untamed Romania ALPIN FILM FESTIVAL: “Regăsește România” 2 events.
“Untamed Romania”, an award- films, books, National Conference winning film about the natural photography (“Re-discover wonders of Romania, which was produced with the help of FCC, Alpin Film Festival is the first and Romania”) was presented to the students largest event in Romania dedicated We have organised We were the partner of Regăsește and teachers from Northeastern to mountain culture. Over 3,000 Romania National Conference, University, USA – thank you New mountain lovers were present at the organised by ProPark Foundation 2 events at our England Romanian Association for events organised in Brașov, Bușteni for Protected Areas. This year’s the promotion of this project. and Predeal within the festival, and edition was an open invitation to several thousand others watched the Cobor Biodiversity the private sector to contribute with live broadcasts distributed on the conservation leaders towards the festival’s Facebook page. The festival change we want to see in protecting Farm. offered us a unique opportunity to nature. The conference highlighted talk to mountain lovers about our the importance of protected areas conservation project. as a reference and a model for Romania’s economic development and concluded that in order to manage the protected areas so as to bring the desired benefits to society, a public-private effort is needed to secure funds for conservation and real support for local economic growth. Throughout 2019, we have attended and organised a Făgăraș County myriad of local and national Experience auction events, sports and cultural For the third year CARPATHIA has events, which involved the donated an interesting experience for the benefit of YouthBank Făgăraș, local community and aimed a fund that finances small projects to promote fantastic nature of the community high school. The winners spent a lovely afternoon at experiences, the rural culture Cobor, having a horse cart ride and of the Făgăraș Mountains a tasty, local meal. And the students used the money to implement local communities, and our projects. conservation project.
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APRIL MAY JUNE The purpose: The European The presidents Brașov Heroes & Nature Trust visit of FCC visit Bikeathon Făgăraș
Duncan Grossart, Director of The The old and the new presidents of We were glad to be part of two Promote the European Nature Trust (TENT), a FCC, Hansjörg Wyss and Charlie amazing community charitable strategic partner to FCC, visited Burrell, together with FCC’s co- sports events dedicated to bikers project to all the project area and discussed with founder Hedi Wyss, have visited our and runners, who could participate us ways in which TENT can focus project to discuss general strategy if they volunteered to represent a on organizing high profile events and next steps. cause. More than 120 people chose audiences. to support our forest conservation to run or cycle for a new forest in the project. Innovative wildlife Fagaraș Mountains. Funds raised by the participants covered the costs of management planting 1350 saplings. FCC has established the first rapid DHL Carpathian Gain acceptance intervention team to manage human – wildlife conflicts, in the southeast of Marathon the Făgăraș Mountains. At the end of and public May, over 20 specialists were trained We had the opportunity to to solve human - wildlife conflicts promote our project and to meet support for the new supporters at the Carpathian Conferences Marathon, a major national sports competition, a first-class mountain future National FCC presented the vision for marathon experience and charity protected areas of the Natura event that takes place every year Park. 2000 Coalition and the results of in the heart of one of the last our forest conservation project at wild regions of Europe - this year the roundtable “Future Solutions: in the Leaota region. Over 2,500 Realities and Expectations for participants joined the event and Environmental Policies in Europe”, we used the opportunity to promote organised in Brussels by Adina our vision of creating a world-class Build trust and Vălean, member of the European wilderness reserve in the Southern Parliament and chair of the Romanian Carpathians. The team Committee on the Environment, supported by us finished on the engage local Public Health and Food Safety. podium and we were delighted for this victory and for the initiative communities. We attended the Virgin forests of the whole event, including conference in Sibiu. One conclusion fundraising for the Romanian was that all parties must cooperate Paralympic Committee. in identifying old growth forests. Another important conclusion was Lerești Commune that the Ministry of Forest and annual fest and the Create sustainable Waters must up-date the national catalogue with supplementary areas. Egg Pretzel festival economic The round table discussions of We support local events in the the LIFE16 GIE/DE/000661 project communities and their sustainable opportunities “Improving coexistence between development. We were pleased to people and large carnivores in be part of the Lerești Commune Europe, through communication and annual fest and the Egg Pretzel for local partnership” gave us the possibility festival, celebrating the traditions, to share the results of our DNA people and beauty of the Făgăraș communities. monitoring of bears. Mountains. We want to contribute to increasing the quality of life in every community where we operate. The event was a good opportunity for dialogue and to raise awareness the importance of conserving forests As in previous years we were present in the local and wildlife, both for the forest itself schools. and for the local community whose livelihood depends on this vital natural resource.
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JULY SEPTEMBER
This year Foundation Conservation Natural disaster in Carpathia was present with a stand Răvășitul oilor (Sheep Rucăr and informative flyers about the Descent) at Runcu importance of forest, grassland and The torrential rains in July showed alpine meadow conservation. We celebrated with the community us the direct consequences of the of Runcu, Dâmbovița county, the end unsustainable forestry activities Folk Rock Fest Piatra of the pastoral year, the traditions, carried out in the last 15 years. the people, the Romanian village and Unfortunately, the victims of this Craiului the beauty of the surrounding nature, disastrous event were the local at the 28th edition of ‘Răvășitul The first edition of Folk Rock Fest people in Rucăr, who have usually Oilor’ (Sheep Descent). According Piatra Craiului was an opportunity not been involved in cutting down to Runcu City Hall, more than 100 for us to interact with the public and forests. FCC helped to clear up the local producers and craftsmen talk about the forests we protect in mud with two excavators and offered participated in the event. It was a Piatra Craiului National Park and the affected families timber for the good opportunity to highlight the general results of our 10 year forest reconstruction of their homes. need of developing programmes that conservation project in Făgăraș and bring real benefits to both nature the Leaota mountains. 7,000 people Trofeul Munților and the people in the area whilst from all over the country joined the OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER respecting nature. (National Sport Tourism event, spending three days in the National Park with good music and Presenting CARPATHIA Bisons are back in the New LIFE contract Championship) interesting activities. Făgăraș Fest Ascendis: Now/ Do Conference - Făgăraș Mountains We have signed a new LIFE contract Running, hiking and touching several In September we hosted the first Transform Knowing into Doing, was with the European Commission, peaks of Făgăraș Mountains in mid- Electric Camping - full edition of Făgăraș Fest, a national After 200 years, the Făgăraș a good opportunity for Barbara & which covers conservation activities July is something everyone should event dedicated entirely to the Mountains became HOME for the moon camping Christoph Promberger to present the for the next five years. LIFE get to experience every year. We met uniqueness of this place and to bison! We are positive the first group CARPATHIA vision and to speak to CARPATHIA is the largest LIFE the community of runners from the This event was a great partnership the local communities living in the will adapt well and soon we will be an audience of over 800 business project in the history of the European Mountain Clubs, NGO’s and tourism between CARPATHIA and My vicinity of the Făgăraș Mountains. able to supplement their number. We people. Union, we are honoured and proud associations competing in the Iezer- Transylvania Association, My Secret The event was organised by ProPark are encouraged in this direction by for Romania! Păpușa Mountains and we spread Romania Association and the – Foundation for Protected Areas, the results of the human dimensions We were happy to host the first the word about our future plans in local community. We developed in partnership with Foundation study on attitudes of locals towards annual meeting of beneficiaries the Southern Romanian Carpathians. an innovative event concept in the Conservation Carpathia and the bison and beaver reintroduction, that Large carnivore of the Endangered Landscapes area which included gastronomy, local community from Lerești stated these two species as being Programme: four days in the field, conference hiking and nature interpretation with commune, within the Endangered accepted. showing our results and the future local guides and local handicrafts. Landscape Programme. The “Long term monitoring of the objectives. Electric camping gathered about participants were encouraged International Carpathian large carnivores” event 50 participants from Brașov, Pitești, to discover the values and the at the Natural Science Faculty, Zărnești, Bucharest, Iași and even surroundings of the festival, through participation events Constanta University, gave us the Spain. They enjoyed a wonderful guided tours in the forest, cart rides opportunity to share our study Barbara Promberger was speaking experience in Dâmbovicioara - accompanied by a local guide, a regarding bear DNA sampling. at the Explorers Symposium of the guided tours, local and tasty food, fair with local products, an outdoor 2019 National Geographic Explorers traditional songs by Hoinarii Band nature cinema or an adventure Festival in Washington DC. and electronic music mixed by DJ challenge. Over 1,000 people DEX & DJ MEET MTD, illuminated joined the event and 150 children Barbara and Christoph Promberger tent, starry sky. The event was participated in ecological education have presented our project activities promoted by various media channels workshops within the festival. Various at the Conference on Wilderness and reached a very good national media partnerships, from national and Old-Growth Forest in Europe, audience. We will continue these and local radio, newspapers to TV, Bratislava, Slovakia within the initiatives in other communes where online and social media campaign AUGUST presence of HE, Zuzanna Caputova, the CARPATHIA project is present. brought a total reach of 3 million president of Slovakia. Carpathian MTB Bike people. Medical centre for Conference on Large Carnivore The Carpathian MTB Epic event Moroieni Monitoring and Conservation in the is labelled as one of the most Carpathians, organised by WWF spectacular competitions in Europe, Our conservation partner Wildland Romania, was held together with due to the special aura of the wild has supported the Moroieni the 10th Meeting of the Carpathian Carpathian Mountains. This event community and co-financed the Convention Working Group on is dedicated to UCI (Union Cycliste development of a much-needed local Biodiversity. Our wildlife researcher Internationale) riders, both seasoned health-care centre. Ruben Iosif presented our results. and also aspiring amateur riders.
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Făgăraș Fest © Alexandru Tanasie
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Făgăraș Fest © Alexandru Tanasie
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Făgăraș Fest © Alexandru Tanasie
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Photo: Photo title, Photographer Făgăraș Fest © Alexandru Tanasie
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Volunteers
Corporate Individuals A B N
Environmental NGO Agent Green Three-month-long volunteers, As part of her “Forests without and their volunteers came to plant Bogdan Vasilescu and Maria Spătaru, Frontiers” project, Nico de 7,300 saplings in the Southern for a great job helping our field team Transylvania (international DJ and Făgăraș Mountains. with camera trap monitoring and cultural entrepreneur) and her also with interpreting the collected volunteers assisted our team of Ascendis, one of the largest data. locals in planting 15,000 saplings in a consultancy and training companies heavily degraded area in Nucșoara. for corporate organizational C They also assisted in planting 120 development in Romania, for oak trees at the Cobor Biodiversity promoting our case to the business Cosmin Dumitrache for sharing Farm. environment and for help in team- moments of his amazing video building. work on Făgăraș Mountains that Nicholas JR White for his amazing helped us promote the unicity of photography story telling project M these mountains nationally and about our vision and mission! internationally. MedLife for continuing their beautiful R campaign for all the babies born D in their clinics, so they will grow Proofreading volunteers: Dr. Ruth together with a new forest in the Daniel Mîrlea for sharing his talent Rusby - English and Sebastian Făgăraș Mountains. During recent with us and helping with beautiful Kortemeyer – German. years we have planted around photos! 40,000 saplings, and in 2019 they S covered the costs for 15,000 more G and came with a team of 50 medical Simona Ciurea for her crazy volunteers, for planting a portion of George Soare for being a close friend campaign of loaning herself for one these trees. with a good camera and a talented day and helping with organizing the eye for photography - thanks for photo database. R letting us use these great pictures!
RTC Proffice joined us for the second I year for a day of replanting: one hectare of clear-cut and 4,000 Ioana Radomir and Ioana Aldulea for We would like to thank all saplings will grow into a new forest in participating repeatedly at events on of you who donated time, the Făgăraș Mountains! behalf of CARPATHIA and for their friendship. effort, talent or knowledge S J for conservation! S-KARP, the Romanian producer of outdoor shoes, organised in Jessica Brown a useful, joyful help at partnership with FCC a garbage the Cobor biodiversity farm. clean-up on lake Satic in the Dâmbovița Valley. M
U Marissa Dyck, or wildlife monitoring volunteer, who came from the USA Ursus Breweries, who came this year for three months to help the team with 30 volunteers to help us with with collecting wildlife DNA samples the final weeding of 8,000 saplings and data processing.
RTC volunteers © Georgiana Andrei © Georgiana volunteers RTC in one of our tree nurseries, before arrival of winter.
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Whilst the new centre is being Education finished, we have continued our centre and educational programmes: activities School Environmental sciences caravans students visit
We ran several community and A group of environmental sciences school caravans as part of the students from Northeastern development of the Natura 2000 University/Boston, USA, came for a Râul Târgului – Argeșel – Râușor practice & study trip in our project management plan. We have visited area. For a week they were involved the schools in four communes and in our field work together with our organised interactive environmental biologists, wildlife experts, forest classes based on information about engineers, biodiversity farm & the protected area. tourism team. Visits to Dâmbovița Invited speakers
Valley We were invited as speakers to the German High School in Brașov for an We have organised visits to the Environmental workshop to present Dâmbovița Valley for high school our forest conservation project. students from Pitesti and Ploiesti who joined our reconstruction work planting alder or simply visiting and understanding applied conservation.
We continue to develop resources The building is carbon-neutral for education and focus on the rural and represents a combination of communities in our project area, traditional building materials such whilst being open to national and as sand and lime for plastering, clay international students as well. and straw for floor insulation, plus a green roof with native vegetation, and the latest technology in Thanks to Temperatio and Pancivis environmental construction, such Foundations, our efforts in developing as fibrous wood panels for thermal insulation, a small CHP (combined the necessary infrastructure are making heat and power) plant based on good progress. vegetable oil, and 49 solar panels covering the whole southern side for electricity. The centre is planned to become functional in September We have continued to convert an old 2020, it can accommodate up to forestry lodge into an environmental 30 people, and is comprised of field educational centre in the seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, Dâmbovița Valley, which will provide a seminar room, dining room, large a basis for school and volunteer veranda, kitchen, an instructor’s programmes. The most time- office, three hallways and a technical consuming part was to obtain all the room. approvals for the building, but we succeeded and started renovation in spring 2019! School caravan © Angela Boghiu
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Richita education centre – construction site © Georgiana Cațan
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Awards
Excellence Promoter of Award the natural environement
Careers Magazine Gala, December Cobor Biodiversity Farm has 2019, Excellence Award for Barbara received, for the second time in a and Christoph Promberger for row, the award for “Promoter of the their personal and professional natural environment” at the Făgăraș involvement in the preservation of Community Gala. Romania’s natural heritage.
Winner
FCC was the winner of the Environment section at the Civil Society Gala for the results of our last two years on forest conservation, ecological restoration, wildlife
protection, and environmental Magazine Gala © FCC at Careers Award the Excellence being awarded Promberger Barbara education.
104 105 ANNUAL REPORT Dâmbovița Valley © Jack Wolfskin Valley Dâmbovița
Conservation Enterprise Programme
Introduction 108
Food hub and other preparations 110
Cobor Biodiversity Farm 113
Wildlife hides 125
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Introduction Elder woman, Nucșoara – Argeș County © Georgiana Cațan © Georgiana County – Argeș Nucșoara Elder woman,
Our proposal for a Făgăraș For this reason, we felt we need to Mountains National Park represents make this economic component a a major change in the life of people major part of our project, not just a who live in the surroundings of fig leaf to cover the difficulties faced. the mountains; it is a change of Consequently, we got a powerful and paradigm. knowledgeable partner on board: Conservation Capital has a track record of channelling investments A large part of the forests would no of over US$ 200m into conservation longer be used as a source of timber, but enterprise programmes around protected areas in over 20 countries. as a source of clean air, clean water, as a destination for recreation and learning, Throughout the last few years, we have been scanning the situation and through better marketing of non- for green business opportunities timber products. and have now started to develop the first business plans and business opportunities. For forest owners, At the moment, the majority of the carbon sequestration and ecosystem people in the local communities don’t services could become alternative get much money out of the forests in income streams; for the local non their backyard: most of it is owned forest-owners, tourism, traditional by the state, logging companies agriculture and processing of forest often operate with workers from fruits, sustainable energy production, other parts of the country, livestock forest restoration work, and local grazing in the alpine meadows with craftsmanship (mainly in construction concurrent EU-subsidy payments businesses) were identified as the is often controlled by just a few main job creators and income individuals etc. Nevertheless, locals opportunities. Our analysis was are most likely to oppose the based mainly on identifying creation of a National Park unless activities: their economic situation is set to improve from this change. – which would help many people,
This, in principle, is common – which have relatively low knowledge and nowadays any investments requirements (to be able serious land conservation proposal to do as much as possible with the addresses the development of money needed), and alternative income streams. The reality, however, is often that one – where local knowledge already or two rather limited operations are exists in order to support existing developed, which often struggle to activities. become economically viable beyond the project period, and the actual effect on the majority of local people is limited or even negligible.
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A food hub could address all these Food hub problems and thus could support hundreds of small family farms and other by collecting their products and preparations selling them to the end producer either in specialised shops, with the help of large retailers, or through personalised food baskets delivered to the homes of the consumers.
Given the cultural roots of small-scale agriculture in the villages at the foot of the Făgăraș Mountains, with still thesedays several dozen farming families in every village, we felt that a food hub could be a great opportunity for the conservation enterprise programme.
As a first step, we hired a capable person from Rucăr, who’s been working with the smallholders on a database, compiled a detailed analysis of available local produce, certification standards, and interested persons in the programme. In parallel, we reached an agreement with French retailer Auchan, who are willing to support this programme by providing a corner in their regional shops for the food hub to sell these products.
All this information went into a business plan and we hope we can receive funding in 2020 to start implementing this great project.
Current page: Mushrooms © Zahra Eskandari; Opposite page: Local produce from Cobor © Dan Dinu
Food hub is a concept originating competition through supermarkets, from the US with the aim of little or no access to the markets, helping small farms by offering difficulties in complying with a combination of production, certification processes, or a lack of distribution, and marketing services. marketing skills and opportunities. In most villages within the project area, local small-scale farmers exist, but suffer from the economic environment they operate in, such as
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Cobor Biodiversity Farm Horse pasture, Cobor Biodiversity Farm © Daniel Mîrlea Farm Biodiversity Cobor pasture, Horse
Biodiversity as the main farm Together with lodging in product sounds like a nice gimmick, but not something you can base a beautifully restored old sustainable economy upon. After farmhouses, the farm Markus Jebsen donated the land for the Cobor Biodiversity Farm to offers healthy, organic FCC, and Temperatio Foundation meals with locally sourced donated the necessary funds to develop the farm, the project has ingredients, and outdoor proven its viability. With its perfect activities exploring the blend of high nature value pasture, biodiversity conservation, organic stunning surrounding farming, a country-cosy tourist nature. and business destination, and charismatic Transylvanian Grey Holidays with us are not just a form Cattle, the breeding facility for the of simple tourism but also contribute Carpathian shepherd dogs, and the to keep the Transylvanian villages best place for livery horses, this form alive, the locals employed and the of biodiversity conservation is more small producers happy in being able than a gimmick. to share what Romania still has at its fullest: tradition, taste, simplicity and Located in rural Transylvania, close freedom. to the Făgăraș Mountains, the farm aims to be a model of a self- sustainable green business, proving that agriculture done properly can support the conservation of biodiversity.
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Flavours & Sounds of 4B: Bike & brunch with Cobor Biodiversity Farm Transylvania beavers and birds continued We have continued our series of Pastoral landscapes of high natural events, with the same philosophy value featured alongside meadows of promoting the village, involving and forests, Saxon villages and the villagers and creating a chain fortified churches, stunning birdlife, of village services, from which more hardworking beavers, and a great local residents, in partnership with range of biodiversity. These were the environment, would benefit: from the main ingredients for our event those who make the products, to organised in partnership with those who cook the food, the hosts Colinele Transilvaniei. The two that receive guests and so on. guides specialized in cycling and birdwatching, who accompanied the Guesthouse no. 282, Cobor Biodiversity Farm © Jack Wolfskin Farm Biodiversity Cobor 282, no. Guesthouse Organized in partnership with My group, talked about all these natural Transylvania Association, this event riches and turned the whole day into allowed our guests to discover the a substantial experience. Biking trails beauty of Cobor village, to taste around Cobor Biodiversity Farm are the traditional delicacies made by easily accessible, making it ideal for the people of Cobor, and listen to families and children, although there old Romanian folk music. Next to are also circuits for those who would farm visits, participants had the like something more demanding. opportunity to bake “lichiu”, the old Transylvanian pie that accompanies the story of the Saxon villages.
In 2019 we Leisure Media trips We hosted mostly families with by Babeș-Bolyai University ecologist, We are glad that a farm that children, from as far as Brazil or Tibor Hartel, with whom we have “produces” biodiversity is an welcomed Australia, but also from Europe and made plans to restore the oak interesting, different topic for the Romania, people eager to escape the wood-pastures in the area, which public. We hosted a crew from the over 600 busy and noisy city life. are quickly disappearing from the Dutch travel show, “3 op Reis”, that European landscapes. And the came to document the conservation Education/study trips beneficiaries of the Endangered and restoration work, both in the guests from Landscape Programme funding who forest project area and in Cobor. Learning about the conservation had their first study trip to Romania. IGLOO Media included us in the all around the efforts of Conservation Carpathia, third edition of their album called about the balance between the Personal development “Conace si pensiuni din Transilvania” biodiversity and the profitability of (Mansions and guest houses from world. this conservation enterprise. Several Meditation programmes like “The Transylvania). And Mihai Stoica, groups have spent a few days in Power Within”, created by an co-founder of the environmental Cobor, involving themselves in the Austrian coach, who took people out organization 2Celsius, together farm’s activities: Students from into nature, in order to (re)discover with Babeș-Bolyai University Cobor Biodiversity Farm Northeastern University Boston, their true selves. entomologist, Laszlo Rakosy, filmed a Continued USA; the Woodland Trust, assisted documentary about our activity.
Willow tit © Georgiana Cațan
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Cobor Biodiversity Farm Continued
Transylvanian Grey cattle
The Grey cattle are not just a cultural heritage of Transylvania, the breed is also an important genetic resource for balanced, healthy, and robust cattle. In today’s world, where quality is once again gaining a good market share, it can also provide the highest level of good pasture fed beef.
The stock at the Cobor Farm serves conservation purposes as well as contributing to the traditional gene bank. With their unique story, our Grey Cattle herd is the most interesting cattle breed in Europe. It has a high resistance to cattle diseases, excellent meat quality, is exceptional in calf rearing, favourable fertility, vitality and has a high aesthetic value. The significance of the species is increasing nowadays because landscape conservation and organic beef production are gaining importance.
In 2019, we increased our family by 26 more cattle, so we closed the year with a total number of 109, of which two are happy bulls.
Hungarian Grey Cattle © George Soare
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The land of horses
In 2016 a horse livery and rehabilitation centre was opened, and in 2019 we had 45 horses roaming freely over 20 ha of securely fenced grassland. The farm provides a safe and healthy environment for our four-legged friends and we are proud of the stories of recovered horses and happy with all our permanent guests: stallions, mares, sports and retired horses.
We have spent the winter holidays with a reduced number of 24 horses, but we look forward to receiving new guests in 2020.
Horses at Cobor Biodiversity Farm © Dan Dinu
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Carpathian shepherd dog breeding programme
We run a breeding programme for the “Carpatin” livestock guarding dogs (Carpathian shepherd), which are an efficient tool in defending livestock against carnivores. All year long, at the farm, you’ll find a lot of pups, which are destined to be donated to livestock owners in the villages of the Făgăraș Mountains. Donating dogs is part of the foundation’s strategy to prevent damage caused by large carnivores to livestock. The main reason why we chose this breed is to revitalise this native species, which has been increasingly replaced in recent years with dogs that are aggressive towards humans whilst less suitable in keeping bears or wolves at bay.
In 2019 we had a total of eight adult dogs with pedigrees, and 18 puppies were donated to farmers in our project area.
Carpathian Shephed © George Soare
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The recreation of ancient wood pastures
The Transylvanian hills had and still the Grey Cattle were re-introduced have, in many areas, some of the to the farm and a biodiversity most important high nature value conservation and management grasslands of Europe. Centuries plan was established. The first steps of extensive, but multiple use of towards this objective were taken in meadows and forests have created April 2019, when we started searching a system of wood pastures, which for regeneration spots in the area forms one of the richest ecosystems with old oak trees and managed to on the continent. take out 85 oak saplings from four spots and replant them on the Cobor However, grasslands have been pastures. Due to the very dry autumn, degraded due to decades of only about 20% survived up until overgrazing and most of the ancient early winter. trees (oaks and high-stem fruit trees - the oldest have been identified We also planted an additional 100 as being 900 years old) have been high stem local fruit trees on the destroyed, either by converting the horse pastures, fencing them off and land into arable land during the protecting them with hawthorn and communist times, or to gain easy rosehips. The fruit trees all survived fire-wood. Throughout the last 300 until early winter, so our effort was years, almost no trees have been worth it! replaced, so these oak pastures have slowly died out. The important Along the fences we planted elements of the ecosystem still additional 100 individual hawthorn remain in corners and niches of the and rosehip plants to complement landscape, but the overall habitat the green fence we started in 2018. quality has decreased substantially. The survival rate is 90%, so we hope we will soon have a nice living fence One focus of the farm is to recreate all around the horse pasture. ancient wood pastures. In 2018,
Oak pasture in Cobor © Daniel Rosengren
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Wildlife hides
2019 was a successful year for Wilderness camp Therefore, we participated in The the FCC conservation enterprise Transylvanian Tourism Fair, which programme, in general, and the We decided to develop a wilderness took place in Brașov. This was a good wildlife hides network, in particular. camp on Poiana Tamas, a 27-hectare opportunity to address ourselves subalpine meadow between to the domestic tourism market Our eco-friendly cabins located in 1400 and 1600 m altitude in the and liaise with other incoming tour the Făgăraș Mountains have hosted Dâmbovita Valley. The place has operators. In autumn, we were invited nature enthusiasts from around an old, abandoned shepherd hut to Brussels to promote Foundation the world, including solo travellers, and could become an ideal place Conservation Carpathia and its adventurous couples, families for nature and meditation retreats, conservation enterprise programme with children, environmentalists, which we want to develop and to the Romanian expats and Belgium student groups to business partners, encourage in the years to come. The residents, who showed a specific journalists and filming crews. Our 2019 pilot programme “Presence in interest towards our “conservation guests had the opportunity to see the wild” - in cooperation with Way journeys” vs. “mass-tourism offers”. wild animals roaming around free of Nature (Austrian tour operator) in their natural habitat, understand - was created to connect people New partnerships the importance of human - wildlife with nature and wildlife within the coexistence and learn more about Făgăraș Mountains. For the next few Throughout 2019, we developed a the Foundation’s conservation years, we plan to develop a tented new partnership with the outdoor projects. camp on Poiana Tamas and use it equipment producer Jack Wolfskin both as a corporate retreat and for and the largest German speaking The international individual stays. hiking travel agency Alpinschule Innsbruck. This cooperation led exposure, the diversified Biosphere Expeditions to the creation of the “Wolftrail”, ecotourism programmes, a unique adventure tour, which The citizen science travel programme has raised great interest amongst the launch of our new organised by Biosphere Expeditions European travellers. The Wolftrail travel website Travel proved to be an exhausting, but is based upon small groups of up interesting first experience for our to 6 persons with medium hiking Carpathia, as well as the team. 20 people from Europe and experience, and will explore the knowledge, care and USA with no scientific environmental wild forests and mountains of background in conservation came to FCC’s project area. These trips will passion of our wildlife- experience conservation in action. be offered beginning in 2020 and specialised guides, all Unfortunately, Biosphere Expeditions the goal is to have 20 departures was not the organisation we had it throughout the summer season. culminated in an increase expected to be and didn’t pay us of nearly 500% in terms any of the costs incurred for the two By strengthening the relationships groups, so we have discontinued with the existing travel partners of guests hosted at our the cooperation with them and and identifying new cooperation wildlife hides. will develop our own eco-volunteer opportunities, by constantly programme. improving our ecotourism programmes and by working closely Tourism fairs with the local communities (acquiring local products, using local services, As part of our main marketing etc.), we strive to create a sustainable strategy we aimed to promote our green economy as a model not only ecotourism programmes both on for the Făgăraș Mountains but also a national and international level. for other parts of the country. Wildlife watching, Bunea wilderness cabin © Daniel Mîrlea Bunea watching, Wildlife
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Panoramic view of Iezer Mountains © Daniel Mîrlea
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Panoramic view of Dâmbovița Valley © Georgiana Cațan
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Brown bear © Liviu Ungureanu
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Financial report
Income sources 134
Expenses 136
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Income sources
All income represents funds received as general support or for a specific project, to support Carpathia's mission and its activities for nature and people.
Private trusts and Foundations
Wyss Foundation
Endangered Landscapes Programme
Oak Foundation
Frankfurt Zoological Society
The European Nature Trust
Foresta Futura Foundation
Mossy Earth
Forests Without Frontiers
Total donations 8,716,351 €
Corporations
Ursus Breweries 10,000 € Public funding Jack Wolfskin 37,522 € EU LIFE11/NAT/RO/823 (2012-2018) “Ecological Restoration in Dâmbovița Valley, Făgăraș Mountains” 559,521 € MedLife 16,749 € EU LIFE18 NAT/RO/001082 (2019 - 2024) “Creation of a Wilderness Reserve in the Southern Carpathian 2,813,694 € Mountains” Other corporate contributions (B&B Collection, Decorio Plus, RTC Proffice, Madex (Temad), Lisec, Schneider 38,791 € Electric, Servelect, etc.) Compensation payments for protected forests 376,147 € Total donations 103,062 € POIM (Management Plan for Natura 2000 site Râul Târgului - Argeșel - Râușor) 88,689 €
Total donations 3,838,051 €
Other income
Income from pasture rent, agro subsidies, timber sale, land rent, forest guarding fees etc. Individuals and other private donations Total income 618,123 € Montaigne Long Now Funding S.A.
Other private donations (on-line donations, public sport events like Bikeathon Făgăraș, Brașov Heroes, etc)
Total donations 164,535 € Total income sources 13,440,122 €
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Expenses Income vs. expenses Chart 5
As a significant part of the income was received near the end of 2019 (such as EU LIFE18 and some part of funds for land purchase), the amounts will be spent and reported in the next year (2020).
Investments
Renovation of Richita Cabin and development of an educational field centre 307,994 €
Field infrastructure and equipment 133,625 €
Car fleet 63,807 €
IT Infrastructure, office furniture & equipment 42,551 €
Land purchase
Land purchase 6,281,443 €
Operational costs
Programme costs (includes funds spent for activities directly linked to our mission (wildlife monitoring, 718,198 € forest restoration, field consumables, Human Dimensions research, etc.)
Salaries (includes the employer’s contribution to the State budget – approx. 580,000 €) 1,419,675 €
General and administrative costs (includes financial, administrative, legal, consulting, IT, HR, audit and 254,575 € other costs needed for organizational development)
Non-operational costs (includes various taxes and fees) 175,274 €
Partner Payment ELP and LIFE (share of expenses of partners for ELP and LIFE projects) 275,560 €
Total expenses 9,672,702 €
136 137 PLANS FOR 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Eagle © George Soare © George Eagle
Plans for 2020
Next steps 140
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Next steps
With the two major grants received the benefit of biodiversity. Together infrastructure, help entrepreneurs (LIFE and ELP) that we have been Land conservation with specialists, we will also embark to start tourism business and preparing for for a long time and on improving the conditions for the increase programme offers targeting We will expand the land acquisition the variety of contributions from majestic Golden Eagle, resident but wildlife and nature experiences. further to the west in the Făgăraș additional charities, private donors, scarce in the Făgăraș Mountains. The Cobor Biodiversity Farm will Mountains and, based on availability, and corporate companies, our path Another novelty we strongly of course remain the figurehead of are aiming to purchase 3-5,000 for the next few years is clearly believe in is the establishment of a our programme and keep exploring ha of forests and alpine pastures laid out. In the coming months, we participatory Wildlife Management new ideas, like the re-introduction of under private ownership. This will make the first steps towards Board, with representatives from modern horse-drawn machinery for year we will also launch the land expanding our activities into the adjacent town halls, local farmers daily farm work. compensation programme, a private wider area of the Făgăraș Mountains, and landowners, to take part in scheme that will allow private land implementing our masterplan that is wildlife management decisions that owners, who do not want to sell their built on the five pillars of our work: directly affect damage prevention, forests, to become active players in Communities
Conservation control and compensation. conservation without experiencing economic losses. In the first phase we will showcase a couple of examples, Community outreach such as how long-term financing and communication contracts can work for owners that Our want to protect their forests with We will intensify our relation high nature value. and cooperation with the local communities, including also the ones pillars Restoration of where we have not yet been active before, for example by organising degraded eco-systems cultural events like the Făgăraș Fest, and facilitating the exchange Within FCC we have obtained vast of experiences of community experience in habitat restoration representatives with other protected over the past seven years and we areas. In the first months we will also
Conservation enterprises Conservation will continue each year with the launch a coffee table book about replanting of at least 100 ha of the natural and cultural richness clear-cuts, the conversion of spruce of the Făgăraș Mountains and its monoculture into more natural and surrounding villages. A new era in climate resilient stands, and the our education programme will start restoration of riparian forests so they with the opening of the Richita can fulfil their multiple ecological Environmental Field Education functions. For the first time this year, Centre, which will soon host school we will also expand into the alpine classes, volunteers, and students areas to restore degraded natural interested in conservation. shrublands. Restoration Wildlife conservation Conservation and management enterprise development Wildlife Since we spent the last year We are looking forward to a very preparing the grounds, we look exciting year for wildlife: with the forward to further develop the release of the first bison into the conservation enterprise programme, wild and the come-back of beavers, especially the launch of the first two keystone species will return to food hub in the area, a programme, the Southern Făgăraș Mountains which connects small local producers and we will carefully monitor how with local or regional buyers. We they will impact the dynamics of the will further invest in building tourism forests and water ecosystems for
140 141 PLANS FOR 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Viștea © Dan Dinu Viștea
Now, these were our plans until the COVID-19 pandemic hit the entire world and left nobody unaffected. At the moment, the whole dimension of this crisis is hard to grasp, and it is impossible to predict when everything will go back to normal, or how this new normality will look like.
What is certain though, is that nature and the human health are strongly connected and that protecting nature will be crucial to prevent future crisis situations, whether in the form of pandemics or climate change.
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Waterfall, Făgăraș Mountains © Ondrej Kameniar
144 145 Contributors
CONTENT Adrian Aldea Georgiana Andrei Angela Boghiu Simona Bordea Daniel Bucur Adrian Ciurea Orsolya Csákány Cristina Haită Ruben Iosif Anca Mercea Oliviu Pop Barbara Promberger Christoph Promberger Anda Olteanu Georgia Tarnea Mihai Zotta
PROOF READING Ruth Rusby
GRAPHIC DESIGN Dragoș Lazarin FOUNDATION COBOR TRAVEL CONSERVATION CARPATHIA BIODIVERSITY FARM CARPATHIA
Brașov – Romania [email protected] [email protected] www.cobor-farm.ro www.travelcarpathia.com [email protected] www.carpathia.org
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2020 © Foundation Conservation Carpathia. All rights reserved. Cobor Biodiversity Farm and Travel Carpathia are registered trademarks of CARPATHIA Group.