Climanatres project

Project CLIMANATRES meeting and workshop on understanding climate change projections for impact assessments in Special Nature Reserve ’’Zasavica’’, Serbia

Within the project CLIMANATRES, one day project meeting and workshop on understanding climate change models was organized on 25th March 2026 in Special Nature Reserve ‘’Zasavica’’ in Serbia. The event was jointly organized by the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research from Hungary as a lead partner and Nature Conservation Movement Sremska Mitrovica from Serbia, as a project partner.
The meeting started with an overview of the current progress of the CLIMANATRES project, introducing the project to external attendees, new delegates from partners and stakeholders. The second presentation introduced the host organisation and its main activities. These introductory presentations were followed by presentations on climate change projections. These presentations were given by colleagues involved in a fellow Danube Region Project, Danube-ADAPT, with which CLIMANATRES shares significant synergies. Sára Bordi from Danube-ADAPT presented key information on the latest global climate change projections (CMIP6), Elisabeth Magyar elaborated on the content of the DanubeADAPT project. This block was concluded by Sára Bordi again with a presentation on projections in the Carpathian Basin. After that, as a preparation for the workshop on understanding climate change models, Katarina Barnjak from GEOF (PP5), presented CLIMANATRES WebGIS demo – incl. bioclimatic variables. Imelda Somodi explained the origin, calculations and interpretations of climatic variables to be used in CLIMANATRES and the subsequent hands-on workshop. Finally, the interactive workshop on understanding climate change projections followed, moderated by project manager Imelda Somodi. Project meeting and workshop finished with Lessons learned from local/regional stakeholder workshop and questionnaire presented by Miran Lanšćak from Green Ring and open discussion on stakeholder experiences.

Second Project Partners & Steering Committee Meeting held in Zasavica, Serbia

On 26th March 2026, project partners of the CLIMANATRES project gathered in Zasavica, Serbia, for the 2nd Project Partners & Steering Committee Meeting, marking another important milestone in the implementation of this inspiring transnational initiative.
During the day, partners reviewed the overall project progress and exchanged updates on the implementation of the following activities related to the vegetation mapping as well as different stakeholders’ inclusion and application of developed models.
The meeting provided an opportunity to align activities, assess achievements, and define the next steps toward establishing a strong and sustainable climate-proofing ecological restoration plans in Danube region. In same time this meeting was opportunity for First Year Overview and presentation of project overall as well as each partner progress in first year of the project implementation. Also, the meeting was attended by a Gusztáv Csomor, representative of the DRP Managing Authority, who followed the reporting on the project progress.
Project progress regarding Specific objectives and activities as well as modifications and key management updates were presented by the project manager Imelda Somodi. Communication and visibility activities in one year of project implementation was presented by Communication manager, Nikola Banjac. Also, in the name of overall project financial management, András Horváth presented financial status of the project, spendings so far and issues related to financial management.
After lead partner presentations, presentations of specific objective (SO) leaders followed. Salza Palpurina represented one of the SO1 leader project partners, National Museum of Natural History – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She presented SO1 advance with particular emphasis on the mapping guide, which has significance regarding the upcoming vegetation season. Miran Lanscak represented Green Ring, leader of SO2 and provided overview on stakeholder involvement. Katarina Baranjak represented University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geodesy, leader of SO3 and introduced the joint publication surface of the project that will also host SO3 deliverables.
On the end, each project partner provided an overview of the current status of project implementation and outlined the roadmap for the upcoming project period.

With a meeting in Zasavica Special Nature Reserve (Serbia), 25. – 26.03.2026. we continue our activities on the project CLIMANATRES

We are pleased to announce that within the project CLIMANATRES we are organizing meeting which will provide project updates and present recent climate change projections and regional modelling for the Danube and Carpathian regions, highlighting their implications for climate-resilient ecological restoration planning. The programme will conclude with a stakeholder roundtable to align expectations, identify regional needs, and harmonise project outcomes with climate challenges and local capacities.
Within this meeting we will present project progress report and where we are in this moment, after which we will have several projections related to the climate changes and impact assessments, which will be finished with interesting walk in special nature reserve Zasavica.
Please find here the draft agenda: https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/climanatres/library?page=2
Please note that the programme on 25th March is open to any interested parties, particularly those involved in nature conservation. So, we encourage all stakeholders and interested parties to take a part in this meeting.

We held a workshop “Synthesis of Challenges Encountered by Local Nature Conservation Actors” on 17 February 2026 at Lake Rakitje (Croatia)

Within the framework of the international CLIMANATRES project, supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union, our partner, Zeleni prsten Public Institution of Zagreb County, organized the workshop entitled “Synthesis of Challenges Encountered by Local Nature Conservation Actors” on 17 February 2026 at Lake Rakitje in Croatia.
The workshop brought together around 40 participants — representatives of partner organizations from Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Serbia, as well as numerous local and regional experts and other stakeholders working in nature protection, habitat management, and ecosystem restoration.
Following the opening address delivered by Tatjana Masten Milek, PhD, Director of Zeleni prsten Public Institution of Zagreb County, several presentations were given to the participants. Key project activities (both completed and planned), pilot areas, current legislation, and other related tasks were presented by experts from partner institutions:
• Imelda Somodi, Project Leader from the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, from Hungary,
• Luka Basrek from the Zeleni prsten Public Institution of Zagreb County from Croatia,
• Marija Sabolić from the Institute for Environment and Nature from Croatia,
• Miha Varga from the Slovenia Forest Service
• Katarina Barnjak from the Faculty of Geodesy, University of Zagreb, Croatia
The main goal of the workshop was to jointly identify the practical challenges faced by local and regional actors in nature conservation, to exchange experiences and institutional perspectives, and to define the actual needs of end-users. Emphasis was placed on gathering feedback regarding the future maps and tools being developed within the project, ensuring that they are as practical, applicable, and useful as possible in everyday work.
Participants actively contributed to the discussions, and the conclusions and recommendations from the workshop will be directly incorporated into the further implementation of the CLIMANATRES project.

Announcement of the workshop ’‘Synthesis of challenges encountered by local nature conservation actors’’ for 17.02.2026. in Rakitje, Croatia

Within project CLIMANATRES, our project partner "Zeleni prsten Public Institution of Zagreb County", on 17th February 2026, in Rakitje, will organize one day workshop for project stakeholders who are coming from the research sector and who will jointly work out examples of the translation of broader models into the local decision-making process. The process will take an interactive form including joint selection of target areas with interest of a specific partner, which is also a stakeholder. Expected impact assessment will be carried out and evaluated regarding effectiveness of the solution. This workshop will help us to raise capacities of project partners for using climate-informed models in planning and implementation of climate-smart management and restoration.
There you can find agenda for this event.
https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/climanatres/library?page=2

Climate Change Impact Models and Nature Conservation Planning survey started by "Zeleni prsten Public Institution of Zagreb County"

Our project partner "Zeleni prsten Public Institution of Zagreb County" start with conducting survey regarding climate change Impact Models and nature Conservation Planning which is one of the cores phasis of the CLIMANATRES project. Through the project, we are developing several tools to predict the future impacts of climate change on habitats, and we want the results to be as tailored as possible to end users. For this reason, we need support of different stakeholders and interested parties in filling out the questionnaire and expressing their opinions regarding climate change impacts. This survey will be implemented as part of activity related to the raising capacities of project partners for using climate-informed models in planning and implementation of climate-smart management and restoration.
The purpose of the questionnaire is to collect professional experience and expert opinions regarding the impacts of climate change and land-use on the habitats and ecosystems within field of work, as well as the challenges encountered in day-to-day nature conservation practice. The information collected will contribute to improving the understanding of the actual impacts of climate change at local and regional levels, identifying the needs of professionals and practitioners for data, models, and decision-support tools and developing practical and applicable models, maps, and tools to support nature conservation planning in the Danube region.
The questionnaire is available at the following link until 5th February 2026:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQ1ADL7BOoDeXeFkmc9WIKcwoIyCYLFe2OdHlXMSF97ez52w/viewform

CLIMANATRES project team wish you happy holidays.....Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The first issue of the CLIMANATRES project newsletter has been published!

At the end of the first period of the project, we summarized the most important activities and results of the semester in a newsletter!
In this Newsletter you can read about the CLIMANATRES project, the Kick-off meeting and official start of the Project, Steering committee meeting and about field mapping trainings and work organized in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.
Our first Newsletter you can find https://interreg-danube.eu/projects/climanatres/library
Stay updated with the upcoming Newsletters from the CLIMANATRES project!

CLIMANATRES project team held field training in vegetation mapping near Subotica in Serbia

As an activity planned for the consortium capacity building, towards accomplishing the project tasks, training in vegetation mapping was held on natural landscape near Subotica in Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia. Representatives of project partner from Serbia, Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment (ILFE), Novi Sad, took part in the field training. The key point of the training was ascertaining in determination of vegetation types typical for the northern Serbian province. Together with the Lead Partner, HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary, the project team also concluded on plant species indicating successional stages of the vegetation types, mainly due to water drainage systems established in the past decades. High-profile tablets, with a GIS-based application tailored to the vegetation mapping, provided accomplishment of the field training and anticipated further developments of the project tasks.

Field work regarding habitat mapping methodology were held in Calacea and Bezdin (Romania)

On September 7th, CLIMANTRES team, consisted of Lead partner representatives, Imelda and Gabor Somodi and Project partner from Life Sciences University "King Michael I" in Timișoara, Gabriel Arsene and Sretco Milanovici, conducted a field trip in Timiș County (Romania), aiming to familiarize the Romanian team with the habitat mapping methodology for the CLIMANATRES project. Two sites were chosen: Calacea and Bezdin. At Calacea, which has one of the most interesting zones (in terms of plant and habitat species diversity) in the high plain of the Romanian Banat, the following habitats were identified: R1A - Semi-dry perennial calcareous grassland (meadow steppe), on a slope with a N - NW exposure. R62 Continental inland salt steppe, with obvious signs of overgrazing; the species Plantago maritima was in bloom. Q54 Inland saline or brackish helophyte bed, a habitat where numerous examples of Cirsium brachycephalum were identified. T11 - Temperate Salix and Populus riparian forest.
At Bezdin, on the edge of a Quercus cerris plantation, the team identified the habitat R65 Continental subsaline alluvial pasture and meadow, with the species Beckmania eruciformis and Glychyrhiza echinata. Near the Bezdin monastery, the alluvial forest in the immediate vicinity of the Mureș River shows signs of drastic human intervention, with recently cut plots, Juglans nigra plantations (T1H - Broadleaved deciduous plantation of non site-native trees), and few large trees (willows and poplars) on the bank of the Mureș. The natural forest is primarily composed of Quercus robur (pedunculate oak) and Fraxinus excelsior (common ash), and can be classified as T13 - Temperate hardwood riparian forest. In contrast, the stands of white poplar (Populus alba) are classified as T11 - Temperate Salix and Populus riparian forest.”