The five year project resulted in several successful achievements. A Sustainable Forest Management Strategy has been elaborated to give a base for new forest management plans. The Strategy is now used as a guideline document formulating the standpoint of State Nature Conservancy on the forests management plans.
New forests management plans were elaborated for 4 forest administrative districts – Rusovce, Samorin, Gabcikovo and Calovo; covering the whole project area. Former forest management plans did not respect sufficiently the nature onservation interests and needs. According to Forest Act, the forest management plans are obligatory document for any forest management of all forest stands. During the project duration, new Forest management plans were elaborated for the whole area concerned.
Proposals for designation of 5 new and enlargement of 3 existing protected areas with total size of 2,086 ha were made.
Individual trees of native species were identified within the project area, which will provide the reproduction material for nurseries and for further afforestation (seeds, material for vegetative reproduction).
Land purchase is used if it is not possible to achieve nature conservation objectives by other effective (cheaper) way (e.g. agreement with land owners and land users) or if the owner is not willing or able (not) to manage the land in a proper way. Ownership/ long term use of the forest land by the environmental NGO allows to leave trees to live their whole biological age and to see the natural forest regeneration. After series of negotiations with land owners, the NGO BROZ was successful to sign contracts and acquire land in different areas of Danube floodplains. At the moment BROZ has under total control 330 ha of the land in cadastres of municipalities Cunovo, Cicov, Velke Kosihy and Zlatna na Ostrove. From this, BROZ has 30 ha in ownership and 300 ha in long-term lease for 25 or 30 years.
At selected sites the invasive tree species were eliminated to prevent their further spreading and to promote the growth of native tree species.
The project included interventions to increase public awareness and increased capacities of local environmental authorities in application of modern ecosystem protection practices.