(21 November 2012) – The EU Member States represented on the LIFE Committee and the European Commission have selected 13 projects as best LIFE Nature projects for 2011. They are presented in a brochure recently produced by AEIDL.
The objective of the LIFE Nature Awards programme is to help improve the transmission of project results by using a set of criteria to identify those projects with the highest potential for long-term maintenance of “favourable” conservation status of natural habitats and species, and support for the implementation and management of the Natura 2000 network.
Projects are judged against a set of criteria developed by the Commission in cooperation with the Member States. These include: Short-term improvement in conservation status; short-term leverage effect; long-term sustainability of improved conservation status; long-term leverage effect; and long-term regional / national / international impact.
The 13 winning projects all contribute to LIFE Nature’s main objectives: supporting the implementation of the EU’s Habitats and Birds directives and the establishment and management of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites. Actions ranged from the conservation of individual species to projects targeting several species and habitats across one or more sites.