Czechia and Germany to Launch Joint Nature Restoration Project on 150 Hectares of Border Territory

Three conservation organisations from the Czech-German border region have agreed to launch a large-scale landscape restoration project covering more than 150 hectares. The initiative is being funded under the Interreg programme, with support totalling almost €2 million.

The project brings together the Czech association Čmelák – Společnost přátel přírody, the German nature conservation centre Naturschutzzentrum Zittauer Gebirge, and the international meeting centre IBZ St. Marienthal. All three organisations have long been active in their respective border regions, but this marks the first time they have joined forces on such a scale.

According to the organisers, the project will involve restoring wetland areas, planting native tree species, and creating suitable habitats for rare plants and animals, as well as installing nesting boxes for birds and bats, reviving species-rich meadows, and establishing protective tree belts and other landscape features on agricultural land. The aim is to create new habitats for dozens of rare species and to strengthen the region's resilience to the effects of climate change.

"Preparing this project took nearly two years and was far from easy. That makes us all the more pleased to have brought it to a successful conclusion. Thanks to this support, we will be able to restore a whole range of valuable natural sites and continue our organisation's more than thirty years of work in landscape restoration and biodiversity conservation," said Jan Korytář, chairman of Čmelák.

Besides concrete conservation measures, the project also includes a systematic exchange of expertise between Czech and German specialists, joint planning of restoration work at selected sites, and preparation of new cross-border initiatives that will continue even after the current project comes to an end.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz