On 27 and 28 November 2023, the AlpPlan network and the Interreg Alpine Space project PlanToConnect jointly hosted the hybrid workshop “Ecological connectivity and spatial planning: From concepts to implementation”, which was the first public event of the new format “AlpPlan/PlanToConnect Expert Platform on Green Infrastructure, Ecological Connectivity and Spatial Planning”. 35 on-site participants attended the event, which took place at the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (UIRS) in Ljubljana (Slovenia).
The workshop included presentations from PlanToConnect project partners as well as from external experts in the field of scientific research, spatial planning, landscape ecology/ forest management and policy development. The presentations can be downloaded here. In two interactive workshop sessions, the participants discussed specific lessons and recommendations for the further work of the PlanToConnect project. The most important aspects to be considered are:
- Structural connectivity approaches are potentially more suitable for implementation in spatial planning (compared to functional connectivity approaches),
- In addition to the ecological perspective, Green and Blue Infrastructure multifunctionality should be considered to highlight the societal relevance,
- Among the Alpine countries/regions, legal competences of spatial planning differ substantially with regard to the management of Green and Blue Infrastructure,
- Multi-level governance and coordination is essential for successful planning interventions,
- Fringe territories at the interfaces of alpine and peri-alpine territories are particularly relevant for safeguarding macro-regional ecological networks,
- Relevant biodiversity knowledge must be translated and adapted between different data “users” in planning processes”.
