Report on methodological evaluation of approaches to migration corridors - ETC/BD Technical paper N°1/2013

This report reviews current knowledge as captured in scientific literature, science-policy interfaces and policy documents on migration corridors in Europe and their effectiveness. It starts with defining a number of terms in relation to landscape fragmentation, corridors and effectiveness. While focusing on biological corridors – the term preferred by the authors – for large mammals in central Europe a number of European projects, scientific articles and case studies are presented and reviewed. Some statistics are given on key ecosystems covered by already proposed ecological networks in the countries bordering the Czech Republic as well as on overlap between protected areas and proposed networks. Based on the review a number of approaches is presented to plan and establish corridors. Furthermore, ways to monitor effectiveness are proposed and recommendations are formulated on better embedding landscape fragmentation into legislation, on delineating ecological networks, on locating corridors, and on mitigating fragmentation impact.

Prepared by: Martin Strnad, Tereza Mináriková, Alena Dostálová, Jan Plesník, Jan Vrba and Michael Hošek (from ETC/BD partner AOPK, CZ), Sophie Condé (from ETC/BD-MNHN, FR)