The Danube Region is home of an extremely rich biodiversity. Preserving the balance between wildlife and human activity represents one of the greatest challenges.The Interreg Danube HARMON project supports a unified approach to balancing biodiversity conservation with infrastructural development in the Danube region.
Interreg project harmonizing infrastructure and biodiversity in the 4 countries along the Danube region
- 01 April 2025
A Seed Money Facility success story
The HARMON project exemplifies the European Union's commitment to balancing economic growth with environmental preservation in the Danube region. Supported by the Seed Money Facility of the Interreg Danube programme, this initiative forms part of a broader cooperation initiative aimed at harmonizing green and grey infrastructure in Romania, Austria, Czechia and Bulgaria. It addresses the challenges of wildlife habitat disconnection due to large-scale infrastructure projects.
Launched in 2018, HARMON aimed to create a strategic action plan aligning with the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. Using European Union funds, the project developed parameters for assessing infrastructure harmonization across four categories: policy and strategies, planning and environmental assessment, implementation and management, and education and communication. These efforts underline the value of European Union cofinanced projects in promoting sustainable development.
Interreg’s role in scaling up and capitalization
HARMON's findings significantly shaped larger projects like Horizon 2020's supported BISON (Biodiversity and Infrastructure Synergies and Opportunities for European Transport Networks), which focused on aligning transport policies with EU environmental strategies, and the Interreg SaveGREEN project, enhancing ecological connectivity in regional planning. The Interreg GreenWeb platform also emerged as a result, providing an expert network for biodiversity and infrastructure synergy.
Inspired by these successes, HARMON 2 (2024-25) was approved by the Interreg Danube Region Programme Seed Money Facility. It builds on these successes, emphasizing capacity building for mainstream biodiversity in the transport sector by creating an education curriculum with universities. Sponsored by the EU Cohesion Policy, this partnership aims to address a crucial gap identified in earlier projects: the lack of integrated expertise among key actors needed to mainstream biodiversity in the transport sector.
The journey of the HARMON project illustrates the enduring impact of EU-funded cooperation programmes, setting a precedent for future initiatives across the Danube region.
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