Wildlife Conservation Romania Project #41940

Protect Biodiversity in Romania

by Frankfurt Zoological Society - U.S.

Project Report | Feb 20, 2020
Protect Biodiversity in Romania

By FCC Team | CEO's and many volunteers

Foundation Conservation Carpthia (FCC) December 2019 to January 2020 Field Report:

Activities:

30.6 ha of additional forest secured for full protection.
We have continued to assign fire wood to the local communities from our neighboring forests.
The strong winds have taken down mainly spruce, but also some beech trees – except of where trees are blocking roads, we will leave it as it is.
We continue to patrol to prevent illegal activities in the forests that we protect and in the local neighborhoods.

Due to the lack of snow in January, we have collected and prepared humus from the forest to use it in our green house.
We deposited juniper seeds over the winter.
Spruce monoculture conversion work has started by opening the plantations to get light on the ground and to prepare for planting beech and sycamore in spring.
We mapped the new properties where restoration measures will be taken in spring: zone, surfaces, saplings.
You can join our ecological restoration campaign, donate or adopt clear-cut parcels at: https://www.carpathia.org/donate/

Wildlife conservation Update

After 200 years, the Fagaras Mountains are again HOME for the European bison! The first bison are doing well in the quarantine enclosure. See photos!
Wildlife conflicts are beginning to decrease, though there were a few incidents with bears and wild boar during December. This is mainly due to the mild winter and the lack of food in the forest as there was no beech fructification in autumn. Our rapid intervention team regularly checks the five electric fences in use.
Rangers patrolling to prevent poaching of wildlife and fish.
We have collected biological samples, mainly from wolves, such as scats, urine and hair, continues. Our team of rangers got support from volunteers and managed to collect 61 samples so far. See photos!
Our breeding programme for the Romanian Carpathian shepherd dog continues with positive results. Soon we will donate new puppies to farmers in the Fagaras mountains. And, we have reached 111 healthy, beautiful Hungarian Grey cattle and calves. See photos!

Events / Presentations / Community Outreach

The “Long term monitoring of large carnivores in the Carpathians” event at Ovidius Natural Sciences University Constanta gave us the possibility to share our recently completed study on the subject.
We participated in a workshop together with other environmental NGOs regarding the wildlife monitoring and management. A common vision will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment.
In a meeting with the farmers in Rucar we discussed wildlife-livestock conflicts and how to better resolve them.
Barbara and Christoph Promberger, executive directors of FCC, were awarded the CARIERE Excellence Award for their life-long personal and professional involvement in the preservation of the natural heritage in Romania. Gala brings together the elite of communities of entrepreneurs, managers, national and world-renowned specialists who contribute to a better Romania. Huge congrats to Barbara and Christoph!

Join us in:

Creating the largest forested National Park in Europe.
Annual restoration of the original ecosystem on over 100 ha of illegal clear-cuts.
Protecting wildlife on a total of 65,000 ha.
Sustainable development of local communities.
Environmental education projects.

Thank you from all of us at Foundation Conservation Carpathia for your support and contributions!

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Nov 20, 2019
Quarterly Field Reports

By Christoph Promberger and Barbara Promberger | Co-Founders and Executive Directors

Please see attached Field Reports for the detailed quarterly updates.

Brief Summary of Main activities in October 2019

Forest Conservation and Management:
• 1,525 ha of additional forest secured for full protection.
• New forest management and conservation plans submitted to the environment authorities.

Ecological Restoration
• Start of Autumn planting campaign: 4,000 saplings were planted in October.
• We have continued working to cut the grass around the saplings to avoid suffocation of saplings under the snow, involving 66 local people as seasonal workers and one local contractor. Results so far: 220 ha eastern Fagaras Mountains, 30 ha in Leaota, 70 ha southern Fagaras Mountains.
• Dwarf pine cones and juniper fruits were prepared for spring restoration activities.

Wildlife Activities
• DNA sampling of Red Deer has finished. A total of 195 samples have been collected.
• We have installed the camera traps for lynx monitoring: 12 locations have already had positive results and we are working on the 2018-2019 report that will estimate the abundance and density of lynx in a basic exploratory model.
• Preparing for the arrival of the first bison for reintroduction: authorizations, temporary enclosures, hay acquisition, selection of individuals for the first lot of 10 bison.
• Collecting aquatic macroinvertebrates and water samples for eDNA and measuring the physical and chemical parameters of the water, for beaver reintroduction.
• Rangers patrolling to prevent poaching and illegal fishing.

• Management measures: The wildlife rapid intervention team continues its efforts to keep wild boar and bears away from the villages. The 4 electric fences installed in the local communities work well, but despite this and other measures implemented, problems are still reported. We have requested authorization from the Ministry of Environment to relocate another problem bear that causes livestock damage and is a threat to the local people.
• Consultancy was offered to the villagers that asked for FCC’s expertise on how to secure their property against wildlife damages.
• First eleven puppies of pure-bred Romanian Carpathian shepherd dogs were donated to local farmers that graze livestock on the pastures managed by FCC in the Fagaras Mountains. Breeding these dogs and donating them to local shepherds is part of our strategy to prevent the damage caused by large carnivores among livestock.

• The end of the hay making season resulted with 14,500 bales of alfalfa and hay.
• We have 103 Hungarian Grey cattle and the heard is growing with some beautiful, healthy calves.
• The dog breeding program is going well, we still have 3 puppies left that will be donated this year to the shepherds in our project area. Also, another 7 puppies were born in October.
• The 3 days/3 nights wilderness camp “The power from within” was a success.

Communication and Community Outreach – Partnership for Conservation

• We hosted the annual meeting of beneficiaries of the Endangered Landscapes Programme, a program funded by Arcadia and implemented by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative UK.

• We planted 40,000 seedlings with the help of the private Romanian medical clinic MedLife and another 15,000 will find their place on the slopes in the mountains, this fall and next spring. A new forest will grow in the Eastern Fagaras mountains, along with 55,000 children born in MedLife maternity hospitals!

Please find even more updates and achievements in the October Field Report attached!

Many millions of thanks! We are so grateful for your support!

Your friends at Foundation Conservation Carpathia.

Links:

Field Report

Attachments:

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