The aim of the WILD-SM (Community Engaging in Wildlife Sustainable Management in RO-HU Crossborder Area) programme, among other things, is to observe and protect the border fauna, which is vulnerable on account of the different surveys and stock management, while taking into account the sustainable development of the human communities living there.
- Nowadays, it is not uncommon for wild and farm animals to cross paths. However, this also poses risks related to nature protection, animal health and the economy, because such direct and indirect contacts can lead to diseases, production losses, and damages to the already fragile biodiversity. As wild animals do not know national borders, the solutions should not be confined by borders either. The WILD-SM project provides infrastructure and knowledge base for this. The Romanian-Hungarian cross-border cooperation assesses, monitors and protects the wildlife of the region- said Szilvia Veres at inauguration ceremony of the centre.
The Deputy Dean of Science of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management of the University of Debrecen added that UD plays a key role in the collaboration, using its knowledge, networks and educational programmes in genetics, animal health, nature protection and game management. It forms a bridge between the lab and the field, the researchers and the local communities, while the project, following the One Health approach, treats the health of animals, people and the environment as a unit. She said that the programme is particularly timely because the changing climate and the human activities have accelerated the movement and encounters of species and the spread of pathogens, and the natural habitats have become more vulnerable.
In the one-year programme, a team from the University of Debrecen and the University of Timișoara, among other things, prepared a species inventory and conducted a population survey of the animal species living in the Romanian-Hungarian border region, focusing primarily on big and small game species.
- We did laboratory tests and field sampling in order to assess animal health risks, determine points of contact between wild and domestic animals, and identify the risks of disease spread. During the project, we examined, among other things, the genetic diversity and population density of game species populations. One of the professional backgrounds of the work was the animal genomics research group of the UD Centre for Agricultural Genomics and Biotechnology, which conducts molecular genetic studies on wild populations and species in Hungary and provided almost two decades of research experience for the joint work- said the professional leader of the project, László Szendrei, assistant professor of the Department of Nature Protection, Zoology and Game Management of the faculty.
As part of the programme, the ROHU Centre for Regional Border Wildlife Monitoring was established to monitor the population conditions of wild animals along the border.
- One of the aims of WILD-SM is to lay the foundations for the management of game species living along the border based on unified game management principles. Thanks to the operation of the centre, we can collect important data on the movement of species and health risks. This knowledge can be incorporated into nature protection and game management practices, in order to protect wild animal species and reduce conflicts with human communities. In our opinion, the project will also improve animal husbandry and food chain safety in the region, as the existing signalling systems and common protocols reduce the risk of epidemics- the professional leader explained.
The project entitled Community Engaging in Wildlife Sustainable Management in the RO-HU Crossborder Area, with the identification number ROHU00275, is implemented within the framework of the Interreg VI-A Romania-Hungary Programme with the support of the European Union, with EUR 159,566.4 support from ERDF, co-financed by Romania and Hungary.
Press Centre - ÉE