WHY THESE PARTNERS?

Although legal and socio-economic situations differ between partner countries, the main challenges for lynx conservation are similar. Mitigation of conflicts between stakeholders is strongly needed to reduce illegal killing. Lynx monitoring must be up-to-date and cover the entire area of lynx distribution. In addition, to build mutual trust and increase lynx acceptance, participative approaches should be implemented that directly involve key stakeholders in lynx monitoring and conservation activities. Finally, a transnational conservation strategy based on population-level data analyses must be prepared and acknowledged by multinational policy platforms. Our consortium of 11 partners was formed to ensure it has all the capacities to manage such tasks.

• Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic is governmental authority in the field of nature conservation in the Czech Republic. Its role is to support the implementation of conservation measures suggested within the project on national and international level and to manage the project.
• Šumava National Park Administration´s area of competence includes the core part of Czech – Bavarian – Austrian lynx population. SUNAP deals with lynx protection and monitoring since the early 1990s. In this project, lynx monitoring and lynx expertise as well as overall coordination of all monitoring effort are the main roles for this partner.
• Alka Wildlife is an NGO from Czech Republic that focuses on applied research and scientifically based protection and management of some species. In this project, Alka provides expertise, monitoring of Czech area outside protected areas and statistical analyses.
• Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic is a public institution dealing with nature conservation. Within the project, it will coordinate monitoring inside protected areas besides Šumava National Park and it will be responsible for recommendation dealing with habitat fragmentation and lynx migration.
• Bayerisches Landsamt für Umwelt is the central authority for environmental protection and nature conservation in Bavaria, Germany. It will take a major role in the implementation and further development of transboundary population monitoring as well as cooperation with stakeholders.  
• World Wide Fund for Nature Germany is a big NGO with a sheer experience in species protection as well as communication with the public. It will work on the social and human dimension of the project, cooperation with foresters and hunters and public relations.
• Amt der OÖLandesregierung is official authority concerning nature protection for Upper Austria. Its main roles will be to perform lynx monitoring and dealing with conflicts in Austria.
• Grünes Herz Europas - Nationalparkregion Donau - Moldau is an NGO interested in nature conservation in the trilateral region of Bohemian Forest Mts. It is a main actor in lynx protection in Northern Austria and in this project it provides data and knowledge of the local lynx population.
• Forschungsinstitut für Wildtierkunde und Ökologie, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien operates in the interface among public policy, research and implementation of monitoring/conservation and has in-depth knowledge on stakeholder management. It will contribute to management and monitoring approaches not only for Austria.
• Zavodzagozdove Slovenije is a public service that manages Slovenian forests. It prepares management plans and action plans for wildlife and evaluates damages caused by some species. During the project, it develops field-monitoring scheme for lynx in Dinaric Carst and will participate on preparation of lynx protection strategy. It will closely cooperate with University of Zagreb.
• Progetto Lince Italia is an NGO focused on large carnivore’s research and conservation. It runs lynx reinforcement activities in Italy. It will contribute with expertise and data on lynx population status in Italian region.