📋 Tender Overview
Start Date: 01/01/2022
End Date: 31/12/2026
Total Budget: 4,776,469 €
EU Contribution: 2,865,865 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
In the Alps and the Pyrenees, specific aquatic and water-related species and habitats (lakes, bogs, mires and meadows) of mountain areas have an ‘unfavourable/inadequate’ conservation status or a decreasing status trend. This is because they have been subjected to long-standing and significant anthropogenic alterations, such as the proliferation of invasive fish species, overgrazing and trampling by livestock. More recently, mires afforestation and land abandonment have emerged as additional conservation issues in mountain areas.
OBJECTIVES
The LIFE RESQUE ALPYR project will provide replicable solutions for some of the most urgent ecological threats to high-mountain lakes and aquatic habitats. The project team aim to eradicate alien fish species, improve livestock management, and control the spread of forests. In particular, the project aims at improving the conservation status of 11 habitats of Community Interest in 4 Natura 2000 sites located in the Spanish Pyrenees and the Italian Alps. These habitats include mountain lakes, mires, bogs and grasslands. The project also targets 11 species of Community Interest linked to these aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats. Most targeted habitats and species have an ‘unfavourable’ conservation status in the Alpine bioregion.
The project is expected to produce innovative results and to advance knowledge in the field of restoration ecology of aquatic and water-related habitats in mountain areas. It will contribute to the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, the Habitats Directive, and to EU policies on invasive alien species.
KEYWORDS
aquatic ecosystem, bog, environmental education, freshwater ecosystem, grassland ecosystem, grazing lake, monitoring, biodiversity, environmental awareness, water monitoring, wetland, water quality, alpine area, invasive species, eradication, restoration measure, mountainous area, wetland ecosystem, endemic species, eutrophication, multidisciplinary cooperation
