OST-Øst-Europa-programmene

European democracy is curently developing into a multi-level strcuture, with Pan-European, national, regional and local levels. Conflicts can occur when values held at one level do not correspond to those held at another level. This can often occur in cas es of biodiversity conservation where the costs of Pan-European policies are often felt locally. Addressing these conflicts requires high human capacity and adequate knowledge. In the context of the west Balkans these factors are not widely present. This project plans to build a regional network and conduct targeted research that will both raise human capacity and fill some of the knowledge gaps. Our study will cover Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania, and involve bo th academic institutions and NGOs. We shall focus our work on bears and lynx - two species that are regarded as threatened on the European level - and whose conservaton can be associated with significant conflicts locally. The project will address social aspects such as human attitudes, rural demographics and conflicts as well as ecological aspects concerning species distribution, status and density. Capacity building will be achieved through providing opportunities for Balkan researchers to visit Norwegi an projects and through regular network conferences in the Balkans. Data will be collected with the aid of local involvement and key interest groups. In addition, we shall focus on integrating interest groups into a discussion process where we help them a rticulate some of the key issues, frame them in light of ecoloigcal constraints, and try and formulate a series of win-win or compromise solutions as recommendations for managers and decision makers. The long term goal of the project is to provide a found ation of capacity and knowledge that can be used to initiate an acceptable process to draw a road map for the conservation of these species in the region as a whole.