The project contributes significantly to a successful and long-term implementa-tion and safeguarding of habitat connectivity in Austria. In addition to the net-working function of habitat corridors, the aspect of how habitat corridors can also be used or adapted for the protection and improvement of insect diversity in Austria was addressed for the first time. Work package 1 is dedicated to the analysis of habitat features and landscape structures with regard to their qualitative (diversity) and quantitative (abun-dance) suitability for insects. The extrapolation of the results of work package 1 implemented in work pack-age 2 provides a first area-wide overview of the structural connectivity of habi-tat corridors in Austria and their suitability for the dispersal and protection of insect diversity. Work package 3 is dedicated to the development of a guideline for assessing the permeability of existing habitat corridors. With the definition of the most important indicators for the assessment of planned measures within the corri-dors, a standardised set of rules for nature conservation assessments is availa-ble for the first time, on which the leading experts in the field of habitat connec-tivity have agreed. Awareness-raising measures are an essential prerequisite for achieving the broadest possible acceptance of habitat connectivity among regional actors (e.g. farmers and landowners). This is the focus of work package 4. For a sustainable protection of the habitat corridors, it is essential to make the habitat corridors visible in an official national document. This issue is addressed in work package 5 by the implementation of a process that allows a widely auto-mated production of specific maps on the topic of habitat connectivity embed-ded in the Austrian forest development plan. A further milestone is the establishment of the “Coordination Platform for Habi-tat Connectivity in Austria” in work package 6, which consists of the most im-portant experts in the field of habitat connectivity in Austria. The objectives of the coordination platform are the regular exchange of experience, a unified and coherent representation of the actors in habitat connectivity and the promotion of the protection of habitat corridors in Austria.

Project NATREG - Styria: Securing open spaces for people and nature. Detailed information on the project can be found at: https://www.agrar.steiermark.at/cms/beitrag/11944510/100812449/

Austrian Ecological Corridors - final version. Valued by the experts of the federal provinces. Prepared in the framework of the LE project "Habitat connectivity to safeguard biodiversity in Austria".

LRVA-2022: Generated standard map representation of the special topic maps for ecological corridors in Austria for the forest development plan. The maps are automatically updated as soon as the data basis (=modification of ecological corridors or modification forest mask from the Federal Forest Research Centre /BFW) changes. Details see also end report available: https://docs.umweltbundesamt.at/s/AzZrHid6q9wkDDM

In Switzerland, there are 304 wildlife corridors of supra-regional importance (as of 2020). They connect fragmented ecosystems or suitable habitats and are vital for wildlife. This is because roads and railways form insurmountable barriers for many wild animals. Both large wild animals such as deer and stags, medium-sized ones such as foxes and hares, and small ones such as amphibians or bats need to be able to move for food and reproduction. An assessment of wildlife corridors came to the following conclusion: 47 corridors (16%) are largely disrupted and can no longer be used by wildlife; over half (171 corridors, 56%) are significantly to severely impaired; less than a third (86 corridors, 28 %) can be classified as intact. Geodata information: In a first step, the known wildlife corridors were recorded canton by canton from existing data and potential corridors were identified using GIS and divided into wildlife corridors of supraregional, regional and local interest. Subsequently, the main features of the supraregional and regional network system were visualised for the whole of Switzerland. The corridors were then classified as wildlife corridors of supraregional or regional interest according to the importance of the axis on which they lie. The data for the connecting axes and wildlife corridors were recorded and processed in GIS by the Swiss Ornithological Institute Sempach. The supraregional corridors and the connecting axes were updated by the FOEN in 2012 on the basis of information provided by the cantonal hunting administrations.

In spring 2019, the NP Thayatal GmbH commissioned the Büro für Wildökologie und Forstwirtschaft e.U. (Office for Wildlife Ecology and Forestry) to prepare a wildcat corridor plan in the Wald- & Weinviertel in Austria and the districts of South Bohemia and South Moravia in the Czech Republic as part of the Interreg project MaGICLandscapes. For the study area in Austria and the Czech Republic, the habitat potential of the European wildcat is to be estimated in the form of a habitat model. Based on the habitat model, a corridor analysis will show the possible distribution routes of the cat. As a further step, a strategy and action plan will be developed to provide a basis for improving and expanding migration corridors and thus dispersal opportunities for the wildcat along the green infrastructure. Within the framework of the MaGICLandscapes project, the research results serve as a basis for the planning, construction and management of green infrastructure. For the National Park Thayatal, they serve as input for the further procedure in wildcat management and are taken into account in the wildcat population support concept. See further information: https://lebensraumvernetzung.at/publikationen/Leitner-2020-Wildkatzenkorridorplan-Endbericht-2021-04-19-web.pdf