COST 341 Action

The IENE organization was the applicant of the COST 341-project 'Habitat Fragmentation due to lineair Transportation infrastructure'.

The most prominent “product” of IENE so far is the COST 341 Action (Habitat Fragmentation due to Transportation Infrastructure) within the framework of the COST (Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical research) program of the European Community. The COST 341 Action started in 1998 and was completed with international conference in Brussels in November 2003. 16 countries and one NGO participated in the action and the following documents were produced:

  • National State of Art Reports on Habitat Fragmentation due to Linear Transportation Infrastructure from 13 countries
  • European State of the Art Report on Habitat Fragmentation due to Linear Transportation Infrastructure in Europe (European Review)
  • European Handbook (Wildlife and Traffic) on how to avoid Habitat Fragmentation due to Linear Transportation Infrastructure
  • Proceedings of the IENE conference in 2003

Experts from over 21 European countries were actively involved in the activities of IENE. COST-341 products have been translated into many languages and are known worldwide.

Cost background

Cost (Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) is a European network for the coordination of national subsidized research striving for an exchange of information on international scale. The main objective of this project was to promote a safe and sustainable pan-European transport infrastructure through recommending measures and planning procedures with the aim of conserving biodiversity and reducing vehicular accidents and resulting fauna casualties. The Cost 341 action started in 1998 and ran until September 2003. Sixteen countries and one NGO participated (Austria, Belgium,Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and one NGO, the European Centre for Nature Conservation, ECNC).

National State of the Art Reports

The National Reports on Habitat Fragmentation due to Linear Transportation Infrastructure contain:

  • habitat fragmentation and infrastructure:
  • effects on nature
  • overview of environmental bottlenecks/maps
  • current situation regarding solutions
  • overview of mitigation/ compensation measures
  • evaluation / effectiveness
  • legislative framework
  • on-going research
  • review of relevant case studies and projects
  • identification of research areas and recommendations
  • directory of institutions and organisations involved
  • bibliography.

In the first stage, the research was carried out by each participating country separately. It was desirable that each country be represented by institutions from both sectors, transportation and environment, in order to improve the quality of the survey. In the second stage, the information given by the national overviews was analysed and compiled in order to produce a single European report.

In some national reports (Belgium - Czech Republic - Denmark - France -Hungary - The Netherlands - Norway - Romania - Spain- Sweden - Switzerland - United Kingdom) you won't find the introductionary chapters concerning 'key ecological concepts' and 'effects of infrastructure on nature' (chapter 2 and 3).  For that reason you can separately open these chapters by clicking on Introduction chapters.

The following countries didn't produce a national report, but made only a compilation of the situation in their country:

  • Austria (signed the action, but had no official delegate to make the national report)
  • Cyprus
  • Estonia
  • Ireland (came into the COST341 action after the national reports were produced)
  • Portugal