BEECH POWER workshop on MARISCO in Slovenia
As a part of the Interreg Central Europe BEECH POWER project, a MARISCO workshop took place in Slovenia on the 18th and 19th of November. MARISCO stands for adaptive MAnagement of vulnerability and RISk at COnservation sites. The workshop served as an expert meeting to discuss buffer zones in two UNESCO World Heritage beech forests in Slovenia, Krokar and Snežnik. The BEECH POWER Partners University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde, Slovene Forestry Service, National Forest Centre in Slovakia and European Wilderness Society attended the meeting. Furthermore, there were experts representatives of many Slovene organisations that are involved with forestry and nature conservation.
Please also read: New Interreg project starting on UNESCO Beech Forests
One day before the workshop took place, there were presentations by the local rangers on the two areas. This way, all participants got to know the two areas they were going to discuss in the following two days.
What is MARISCO?
MARISCO is a participatory approach for adaptive management, helping to design the best strategy for the management of protected areas. MARISCO helped identify biodiversity objects, key attributes, stresses, threats and contributing factors in the two areas. Then, stresses and threats were assessed depending on their criticality, knowledge and manageability. Finally, experts looked at how buffer zones of these two areas help reduce the threats and stresses.
The workshop successfully provided participants with a new insight into the management of buffer zones around World Heritage Beech Forests in Slovenia. The managers will be able to use the knowledge gained with the analysis to take care of the buffer zones in a more sustainable way.
Buffer zones have an important role in conserving protected areas. That is because they allow the buffering of external impacts on the core part of the protected area. At the same time, the buffer zone is highly susceptible to conflicts between different stakeholders. On the other hand, it can also be very important for outreach and visitor activities.
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