Thursday, 16 June 2022 Project ENGREEN completed

The ENGREEN project - a 29-month project for preservation of green infrastructure in the cross-border cultural landscape Italy-SloveniaI, in which UP FAMNIT, VeGAL - Agenzia di Sviluppo del Veneto Orientale, ZRSVSN and Municipality of Dolina also cooperated with the Škocjan Caves Regional Park, ended today.

As part of the collaboration UP FAMNIT researchers collected data on ponds in western Slovenia and in the part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Through its activities, the ENGREEN project has achieved its purpose of preserving the biodiversity of the area and significantly contributed to the restoration of dry walls, ponds, small wetlands, glaciers and the preparation of joint guidelines and plans for an integrated strategy for biodiversity conservation and development.

According to the director of the Škocjan Caves Park, Mr Stojan Ščuka the project "significantly contributed to the inventory of ponds, wells and drywalls and their renovation, which will continue as part of new already acquired projects (ReNature) and projects that are still in preparation (ENGREEN 2)." He added that "cooperation with the University of Primorska had a significant impact on the results and exceptional success of the project through various field tasks and deepened the existing cooperation, which will continue with various activities outside the project and in all subsequent projects in their area«.

Director of the Škocjan Caves Park, Mr Stojan Ščuka

Assist. Prof. Martina Lužnik, from the Department of Biodiversity at UP FAMNIT adds that "in two years they examined a large part of ponds (and other water bodies) in the Karst, Slovenian Istria and Brkini, collected data on the condition of ponds and the presence of amphibians, monitored karst grasslands and butterflies.". There was also monitoring of the recovery of the population of the extremely endangered butterfly False ringlet (lat. oenonympha Oedipus) after the fire (2019) in Cerje. By removing alien species, they have improved both the condition of ponds (removal of goldfish) and the habitat for False ringlet (removal of spider mites from grasslands), and the dissamination achieved with "ENGREEN" BIOLOGICAL EVENINGS with interesting, current and diverse biological topics.

Assist. prof. Martina Lužnik

As part of the project, UP Famnit also intensively included students - they even conducted 2 summer schools - where they were able to participate intensively in field research, and quite a few students chose this topic to prepare a final thesis in both 1st and 2nd level study programs.

The key activities of UP Famnit's cooperation within the project were:

• preparation of an overview of green infrastructure in the program area, and in particular the collection of existing data on ponds in western Slovenia and part of Friuli Venezia Giulia;

• survey of a large part of ponds (and other water bodies) in the Karst, Slovenian Istria and Brkini and collection of data on the condition of ponds and the presence of amphibians;

• review of karst grasslands and butterflies: monitoring the recovery of the population of the extremely endangered False ringlet butterfly after the fire (2019) in Cerje (2020, 2021, 2022);

• by removing alien species, they improved the condition of ponds (by removing goldfish from 8 ponds) and the habitat for False ringlet butterfly (by removing spider mites from grasslands), and

• great reach with "ENGREEN" BIOLOGICAL EVENINGS with interesting, current and diverse biological topics - more or less related to green infrastructure.

Members of the ENGREEN Project Team at UP Famnit, Assist. Katja Kalan, PhD, Assist. Prof. Jure Jugovic, Assist. Prof. Vladimir Ivović, Assist. Martin Senič,  Assist. Sara Zupan, Assist. Prof. Martina Lužnik