Also on the Natura 2000 day, the European Commission launched the 2022 edition of the Natura 2000 Award. Please apply online until the end of September!

The Award, now in its sixth edition, honours and gives recognition to leading nature conservation achievements connected to Europe’s Natura 2000 network of protected areas. It helps to raise awareness about Natura 2000, the work carried out by different organisations and individuals to safeguard these vital natural assets, and the health, cultural, societal and economic benefits the network provides to us all.

In previous years a range of large carnivore-related projects has been recognised as winners and finalists. For example in 2020, the project "Joint efforts for safe and wildlife-friendly transportation networks in the Carpathians" with partners in Romania, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine, won the Cross-border Cooperation and Networking Award for its interdisciplinary collaboration addressing landscape fragmentation in the Carpathian Mountains, which should benefit a range of large carnivore species. In 2018, the Greek NGO Callisto, won the Reconciling Interests and Perceptions Award for "Co-existing with bears in the 21st century: Difficulties and achievements" for working with stock-breeders and local authorities to reduce conflicts with bears.