A Study of the Emerald Network objects in Ukrainian Forest-Steppe of Dnieper Ecological Corridor

FLOOD HAZARD MAPPING TO PROTECT IMPORTANT HABITATS

In Europe, species and ecosystems struggle to cope with severe human pressures in heavily fragmented landscapes extending across a large number of comparatively small states. This makes the conservation of European biodiversity a challenging enterprise, and the need for transboundary cooperation particularly great. This chapter introduces and analyzes the two principal international legal regimes aimed at the conservation of biological diversity in Europe at a transboundary level. The first of these is the Council of Europe’s Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention) of 1979. The second regime is composed by two legal instruments of the European Union (EU), the Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (Birds Directive) of 1979 and the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (Habitats Directive) of 1992. Particular emphasis is given to those features which set these instruments apart from other global and regional nature conservation regimes.

EFFECTIVENESS OF EU NATURE LEGISLATION FROM CONFLICTING TO SUPPORTING EU POLICIES – THE LONG BATTLE TO SECURE COHERENCE WITH EU NATURE LEGISLATION The European Union has been involved with the protection of wildlife and natural habitats for over thirty-five years, starting with the signature of the Bonn Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (23/06/1979) and the Bern Convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats (19/09/1979). The Directive on the conservation of wild birds (hereaft er the Birds Directive) and the Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (hereaft er Habitats Directive) put the necessary legal framework for the coordinated implementation of these conventions in the Member States in place. The Habitats Directive provides for the establishment of the Natura 2000 network, a coherent network of sites selected on the basis of scientific criteria for the protection of species and habitats identified in application of the Habitats Directive or of the Birds Directive. The question of the effectiveness of the EU's nature legislation came to the forefront of the EU political agenda in 2014 with the launch of a European Commission “Fitness Check” on these two directives. The challenges of implementing the Nature Directives and of establishing the Natura 2000 network are no secret, with numerous conflicts being brought all the way up to the European Court of Justice. However, the timing and opportunity of launching a “Fitness Check” on the Nature Directives five years ahead of the EU Headline target of “Halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as is feasible while also stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss”, and less than five years aft er the adoption of the new Strategic Plan (2011-2020) of the Convention on Biological Diversity with the 20 Aichi Targets, has been questioned by many. With the mission letter from the new President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker calling on the Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella “to carry out an in-depth evaluation of the Birds and Habitats directives and assess the potential for merging them into a more modern piece of legislation”, NGOs have questioned the objectivity of the process.

The Emerald Network of Ukraine provides the preservation of the most valuable and typical components of landscape and biotic diversity, including the habitats of rare and endangered species of plants. In order to ensure the effective protection of biodiversity, within the boundaries of natural or anthropogenically modified territories, the necessary condition for their flora diversity should be its study. One of the territories that is the central link in the structure of the ecological network of Ukraine is the Dnipro Ecological Corridor. Within the Dnipro ecological corridor of the forest–steppe of Ukraine are located 11 objects of the Emerald network, which is 4% of their total number in Ukraine, which are characterized by specific biotope–ecotope characteristics and which consist of a significant number of populations of endangered and rare plant species. As a result of the analysis the objects of the Emerald network, 33 habitats from Resolution No. 4 of the Bern Convention were identified (C1.222, C1.223, C1.224, C1.225, C1.226, C1.25, C1.32, C1.33, C1.3411, C1.3413, C1.67, C2.33, C2.34, C3.4, C3.51 (but excluding C3.5131), D5.2, E1.2, E1.9, E2.2, E3.4, E5.4, E6.2, F3.247, F9.1, G1.11, G1.21, G1.22, G1.3, G1.7, G1.8, G1.A1, G3.4232, X35) and 69 species of vascular plants, that belong to such protective lists : Annex I of the Bern Convention – 12, Resolution No. 6 of the Emerald Network – 11, the Red Book of Ukraine – 56 and the European Red List – 8 species. In Emerald objects, they are distributed in this way: Kanivskyi Nature Reserve – 40 species and 25 habitats, Holosiivskyi National Nature Park – 29 and 23, Nyzhnovorsklianskyi Regional Landscape Park – 26 and 21, Nyzhniosulskyi National Nature Park – 27 and 28, Kremenchutski Plavni Regional Landscape Park – 5 and 19, Kremenchutske Reservoir – 17 and 28, Kanivske Reservoir – 16 and 27, Dniprodzerzhynske Reservoir – 5 and 21, Ponyzia Stuhny – 8 and 10, Cherkaskyi Bir – 17 and 17, Mykhailivskyi – 10 and 22, respectively. Preservation and reproduction of rare species is one of the main tasks of creation the protected areas and ecological networks. An overview of the specific features of these objects and the existing conditions for conservation of biodiversity in general suggests that the considered areas, despite their very significant anthropogenic transformation, can be considered as important aspect of preservation and reproduction of rare vegetation diversity in the scale of the plains of Ukraine.

This paper describes the tensions between the legal requirements for conservation and the most beneficial biological practice for mobile transnational marine species, using the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in European Atlantic waters as a case study. Harbour porpoise are the smallest and one of the most abundant cetaceans occurring throughout the European continental shelf waters, and are affected by human activities occurring in the same waters, especially certain fishing activities. The Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (the Bern Convention) and its implementing legislation the Council Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora 92/43/EEC (i.e. the Habitats Directive) are the main legal drivers for species conservation throughout the European Union. They aim for the long‐term achievement of favourable conservation status and make provision for the use of two conservation measures: protected areas and strict protection measures. The strict protection measures aim to ensure that all forms of deliberate killing are prevented, and that where incidental killing and capture occurs, it does not have a negative effect on conservation status. The conservation of harbour porpoise is currently dependent upon tackling the key issue of bycatch in fisheries. However, in challenges to Member States on their application of the Habitats Directive, the European Commission has chosen to focus on site designation rather than the implementation of the strict protection measures required to monitor and, where necessary, reduce bycatch. This tension between a legal focus on the designation of protected areas instead of tackling threats such as bycatch has potentially led to negative conservation consequences for harbour porpoise and, in part, may explain why wider marine biodiversity has continued to deteriorate in Europe.

In Cyprus, there are 16 species of bats most of which are threatened with extinction. With the exception of the megachiropteran Egyptian Fruit bat Rousettus aegyptiacus that feeds on fruit, the rest of them are insectivorous microchiropterans. The Fruit bat was declared as a pest by the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of Cyprus since the early 1900s. To reduce the number of this “pest”, the above-mentioned Department, since 1927, used fumigation, shooting, and the purchase of dead bats. Fumigating and closing caves not only destroyed Fruit bats by direct poisoning, but the entire cave ecosystems, including highly beneficial and protected insectivorous species. The first attempt to protect bats on the island was in 1988 with law No. 24 of 1988, ratifying the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, 82/72/EEC. This convention protects all microchiroptera species except Pipistrellus pipistrellus that is strictly protected. R. aegyptiacus is rare, with small populations that are not at present endangered or vulnerable but at risk. Cyprus recently became a member state of the European Union. This provided the opportunity to include R. aegyptiacus in the Annexes II and IV of the council directive 92/42/EEC of May 21, 1993 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, which will guarantee the long-range protection and survival of this species.

Modern approaches to the use of grid mapping in studies of biodiversity at the level of distinct countries and local territories are described. Information on the territory of Seymskiy Regional Landscape Park as a significant element of the National Ecological Network, the Emerald Network in Ukraine and the regional ecological network, and on its functional zoning is given. The cartographic basis of the territory of Seymskiy Regional Landscape Park is created via MapInfo program. When designing the grid map of the park, the experience of developing grid maps for Cheremosh National Nature Park, Vyzhnytsky National Nature Park, Hutsulshchyna National Nature Park, Khotynsky National Natural Park was used. It is based on application of a grid of 1×1-km squares, which is consistent with the accepted in Atlas Florae Europaeae grid, following the UTM coordinate system. Operational layer of the generated map comprises 1193 squares, fully (876) or partially (317) covering the study area. Each square is assigned an individual number (ID), consisting of alphanumeric notation that allows to easily find information and operate it. For each of the plant species, there is created a separate layer, stored in an electronic database and containing information about the location of the species in a certain square. Synthesis of information using the algorithm of creating thematic maps will help to identify the locations of concentration of floristic diversity in the study area, and its combination with zoning maps will provide an opportunity to correct functional zoning of Seymskiy Regional Landscape Park. The information collected and organized in this way will clearly display the dynamics of the number of individual species, which is especially relevant for rare species and alien flora fraction of the park. Cartographic material will be the basis for further monitoring studies within the territory of Seymskiy Regional Landscape Park.

A perennial herb with horizontal rhizome (diameter about 6mm) up to 10cm underground. Roots long and fleshy, diameter up to 2mm. Stem 20-60(70) cm, glandular-pubescent with brown basal sheaths; leaves 3-5, elliptical to ovate-oblong, acute to acuminate, sparsely pubescent (oval lanceolate, somewhat pleated, large), (7)11-17(22) cm long, (3)5.58(10) cm wide, veins obvious, bracts leaf-like, exceeding flowers; flowers 1-2(3) large; perianth segments purple-brown; dorsal outer tepal ('sepal') lanceolate, suberect, 3.5-6cm long and 1.5-2.5 cm wide; lateral 'sepals' joined, hanging below labellum 3.5-5.5 cm, free tips up to 5mm; inner tepals ('petals') 4-7 cm long and 0.5-1 cm wide, horizontal, twisted; labellum yellow, shoe-shaped (length 34cm, width 2-3 cm, depth 1.5-2 cm), reflexed, covered with viscous hairs inside, not spurred; staminode petaloid shield-shaped, white with red spots, 1-1.2 cm long, 0.7-0.9 cm wide; ovary elongate, somewhat curved, pubescent (glandular hairs), not twisted, pedicellate. Two fertile anthers, one on each side of style; stigma and staminode forming a flat appendage on the front of the column. Capsule up to 3 cm long and about 0.9 cm in diameter, containing 6000-17 000 seeds; seeds oblong about 1 mm long with a mass of a few micrograms (seed volume 0.02 mm3). From continental Europe, the all-yellow flowered var. fiavum Rion has been recorded (Davies et al. 1984). This exceedingly rare orchid was formerly more widespread in northern England in limestone woodland; it is more plentiful in wooded sites in northern Europe, but everywhere has suffered from collecting.

The development of forestry, tourism and recreation industries in the mountainous part of the Transcarpathian region contributes to the intensive manifestation of exogenous geomorphological processes. The risk of their manifestation largely depends on the morphometric characteristics of the terrain. The purpose of our research is to analyze the risks of the manifestation of erosion and other morphodynamic processes in the southeastern part of the Polonyna Rivna (Runa). A digital elevation model and morphometric maps of the steepness of the earth's surface and the exposure of the slopes of the study area were compiled. Based on it the GIS model "Risk of manifestation of erosion processes and the state of protection of the slopes of the southeastern part of Polonyna Rivne" was created. Zones with the highest degree of risk of erosion and other geomorphological processes were identified. Their areas and features of distribution were established. The results of the calculations are presented in the tables. The highest degree of risk of erosion processes is characteristic of slopes located west and south of the peaks of Hostra Hora (1,405 m) and Polonyna Runa (1,480 m), as well as in the the territory between the Latoritsa and Vycha rivers. They occupy 18.88% of the study area. The degree of protection of the geocomplexes of the slopes by the objects of the nature reserve fund, the designed structural elements of the regional ecological network of the Transcarpathian region and the Emerald network were clarified. The prospects for the creation of new multifunctional nature reserve institutions here — the regional landscape park "Polonyna Rivna" and the national landscape park "Zhdymyr" — are outlined. The purpose of creation of these environmental protection institutions is to establish nature protection management and conduct monitoring studies. In order to prevent the development of erosive and other geomorphological processes within the most erosively dangerous groups of slopes, it is necessary to prohibit the use of continuous forest felling, wood trawling by dragging, and the movement of tracked forestry and tourist vehicles (quadricycles, jeeps). Key words: Polonyna Rivna (Runa); exogenous geomorphological processes; steepness of the earth's surface; exposure of slopes; nature reserve objects; ecological network; Emerald network.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) open up new perspectives for the repetitive spatial monitoring of vegetation stands and possibly even for fine scale analyses of individual plants. The potentials of recent UAV camera systems for integrating high spatial resolution (< 10 cm per image pixel) and area wide mapping are undergoing research. In particular, robust algorithms are needed for a spatially explicit characterization of individual plants, their structural composition and related functional traits. Such information can be used to examine ecological interdependencies that determine habitat establishment, and in general, to evaluate the habitat quality for nature conservation purposes [1]. In our study we developed a UAV-based methodological procedure to analyse open heathland areas that are protected in the European Natura 2000 network, and therefore, need to be managed to preserve a favourable conservation status [2]. We mapped the flowering phase of regenerated dwarf shrub heath (Calluna vulgaris) stands 2 years after burning and of unmanaged old stands using a standard RGB drone camera. From the UAV imaging point cloud a digital orthophoto and a digital surface model was generated with 2 cm pixel resolution. A method was developed that extracts every individual plant on the basis of RGB-colour value classification, texture filtering and local maxima estimation on a normalized digital surface model. For every plant the maximum plant height as well as the RGB colour distribution could be extracted and related to field surveys of plant traits. On that basis, a colour model was constructed that statistically predicts the phenological heath plant status with regard to fractional cover of flowers, fruits, vegetative shoots and senescent plant components. Our study reveals that the flowering phase of Calluna vulgaris is spatially much more divers than expected. Colour models from simple RGB imagery show that phases of completely vegetative, withered, fruit and full flowering plants spatially coexist in heterogeneous alternations of individual plants, in fact, independent of growth age after burning (height 40 cm) exhibit significantly lower fractions of fruit and flowers while senescence is increased. However, the high phenological diversity after fire management shows that driving factors of shoot extension and flower productions, thus, are triggered by additional mechanisms that are not affected by habitat management practice. UAV-based imagery can help to observe such effects for a more detailed evaluation of management effects. REFERENCES: 1. Neumann C, Weiss G, Schmidtlein S, Itzerott S, Lausch A, Doktor D, Brell M., 2015. Gradient-based assessment of habitat quality for spectral ecosystem monitoring. Remote Sensing. 7(3), 2871-98. 2. Habitat Directive, 1992. Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. Official Journal of the European Union. 206, 7-50.

SUMMARY By adopting the Habitats Directive (Directive 92/43 of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) in 1992, the governments of the European Community committed themselves to the creation of the Natura 2000 ecological network, with the aim of conserving an extensive range of European habitat types and wildlife species. In doing so, they set in motion the most significant initiative for nature conservation in the history of Europe. In Spain, Natura 2000 will have a considerable impact on the conservation of habitats and species, potentially increasing the percentage of national territory within protected areas from 6% to as much as 20%. This paper aims to illustrate the importance of extensive farming systems to the maintenance of habitats within Natura 2000, and vice versa.

Eight regional landscape parks (RLP) are located on the territory of the Ukrainian Carpathians, which play an important role in relief and natural complexes protecting within the region. RLP significantly complements the nature protection functions of two nature reserves and 13 national parks in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Six RLPs are located in the mountainous part of the region, and regional landscape parks "Prytisyanskyi" and "Chernivetskyi" are within the premountain uplands, the natural complexes of which are insufficiently protected. Within the boundaries of the Precarpathian Upland there are sections of two national nature parks such as Halytskyi and Hutsulshchyna. There are no nature reserves or national nature parks within the Zakarpattia (Transcarpathian) Plain. Regional landscape parks "Prytisyanskyi" and "Chernivetskyi" due to the cluster structure of the territories significantly improve the state of protection of premountain natural complexes. In the relief of the southern section of RLP "Prytisyanskyi", the dominant position covers by the low and high floodplains, less often by the first floodplain terrace of the Tysa River. The relief of the northern part of the park is represented by low and high floodplains, fragments of the first floodplain terrace. A complex of different types of meanders is observed in the channel of Latoritsa River. RLP "Prytisyanskyi" fairly fully represents the features of the geological structure and fluvial relief of the Uzhgorod-Beregivska and Vylok-Korolevska alluvial plains of the Zakarpattia (Transcarpathian) Plain with island volcanic hills. Most of the territory of RLP "Chernivetskyi" on the west and south from Chernivtsi city covers by Chernivtsi Upland with a layered and hilly sculptural relief and Mount Tsetsyna (537 m). The park includes separate sections of low terraces along the Prut River. The northern part of the RLP is represented by the Khotyn Upland with Mount Berda (516 m) as the highest point of the Ukraine’s plain part within the East European Platform. The Khotyn Upland is an asymmetric hilly plateau. Its the highest peaks are formed by structural surfaces with steep slopes. The lower level of relief in the RLP is represented by watersheds with karst forms (karst funnels, polje). RLP "Chernivetskyi" represents the geological and geomorphological structure of the Chernivtsi-Storozhynetsky strand-hilly upland of the Pokut-Bukovinsk-Peredkarpattian stratum-denudation-accumulative Upland, as well as the Khotyn structural Upland of the Prut-Dnister stratum-wave Plain. Keywords: Regional landscape park; RLP "Prytisyanskyi"; RLP "Chernivetskyi"; Ukrainian Carpathians; relief.

INTRODUCTION The continuing loss of biodiversity is an issue of global concern. Europe's biological diversity, in addition to displaying a number of important ecological characteristics, is testament to the millennial symbiosis between man and his natural environment. In effect, more than on any other continent, human activities have been shaping biodiversity over centuries. Ecosystems were relatively stable until the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the past two centuries. Today, however, biodiversity faces a major crisis at both global and European levels, the implications of which still have not been fully appreciated. Biodiversity is indeed passing through a period of major crisis. Most natural or semi-natural, continental and coastal ecosystems are now subject to significant modifications as a result of human activities (land use changes, intensification of agriculture, land abandonment, urban sprawl, climate change, etc.). Scientists expect that these disruptions will cause an unprecedented drop in the wealth of specific and genetic diversity. In order to reverse these negative trends, in 1979 the EU enacted the Birds Protection Directive, and in 1992 a sister directive, Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (the Habitats Directive). In addition, under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the EU agreed in 2001 to a global target of ‘significantly reducing the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010’. After this failed attempt to stop biodiversity loss, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to halt biodiversity loss in the EU by 2020. The Birds Directive makes it a requirement for Member States to ‘preserve, maintain and re-establish sufficient diversity and area of habitats for all wild birds’ and in particular to designate a range of Special Protection Areas (SPAs). The aim of the Habitats Directive is to contribute towards ensuring biodiversity through the conservation of natural habitats and of wild flora and fauna throughout the Member States. Accordingly, measures taken pursuant to the Directive must be designed to ‘maintain at or restore to’, a favourable conservation status, natural habitats and species of wild flora and fauna ‘of Community interest’. It is thus ‘an essential objective of the Directive that natural habitats be maintained at and, where appropriate, restored to a favourable conservation status’.

NATURA 2000 – The influence of the European directives on the development of nature-based sport and outdoor recreation in mountain areas

European Ecological Network Natura 2000 is a system of protection of threatened components of biodiversity in the EU. The legal basis for the creation of the Natura 2000 network is Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (Birds Directive) and Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive). Natura 2000 sites are the youngest form of nature conservation in Poland. The author presents developing and geographical location of the Natura 2000 network in the Lublin Region. Against the background of Poland, the Lublin Region has the most – 123 – designated Natura 2000 sites: 100 habitat sites and 23 birds sites. These areas are extremely diverse in terms of location, area and character. Location of Natura 2000 in the Lublin Region is uneven. Their position refers in large part to a pre-existing network of the protected areas. Only 5 habitat sites and 23 bird sites designated in areas not covered so far areal forms of nature conservation. None of Lublin Natura 2000 areas has, as required by law, protection plans, for the eight habitat sites there are created conservation work plans. Also missing is good, kept up to map, the entire Natura 2000 network in Poland and the Lublin Region. The process of creating the Natura 2000 network in Poland is still ongoing. To meet the Natura 2000, its role of protection of species and habitat conservation plans are needed and their consistent implementation, taking into account the investment process and building public support for the existence and functioning of the newest forms of nature conservation in our country.