20.500.12556/RUL-156028 Large carnivores and the EU LIFE programme Most large carnivore populations have increased in recent decades in Europe. Along with the adoption of the EU Habitats Directive in 1992, the EU launched a funding program entirely dedicated to environment, nature protection and climate action, the European LIFE programme. Here, we explore the investment of this programme in large carnivore conservation across Europe, from its implementation in 1992 to 2020 (28 years), with respect to budgets, species considered, economic factors and the geographical distribution of the projects. A total of 153 projects have directly or indirectly targeted large carnivores, with a total budget of ca. 338.2 M€ (EU contribution >194.1 M€). Despite the transboundary character of most large carnivore populations, only 5.8% of projects worked across national borders. Large carnivores did not receive equal attention within the programme, and EU Member States from Southern Europe accumulated 77.7% of the projects. The region of Abruzzo (Italy) has been granted with the highest number of projects (n=28), followed by Castilla y León (Spain, 16 projects). At national level, the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) did not correlate with the number of LIFE projects granted, but the proportion of the GDP invested in the protection of biodiversity and landscapes (positively). However, at the level of European regions (NUTS 2), those regions with lower average per capita GDP were more frequently granted with LIFE projects. We discuss several factors affecting the distribution of projects across Europe, and we make recommendations for future investments in maximizing large carnivore conservation under this program. Europe conservation LIFE programme funding Canis lupus Gulo gulo Lynx lynx Lynx pardinus Ursus arctos Evropa naravovarstvo program LIFE financiranje volk rosomah evrazijski ris iberski ris rjavi medved true false false Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2024-04-29 13:23:37 2024-04-29 13:23:44 2024-04-30 03:42:55 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2024 0 0 17 str. article no. ǂe02965 Vol. 2024 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova VTisku NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2024-04-26 630*15 2351-9894 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02965 194169859 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989424001690 1 f0d04c25-061a-11ef-aff4-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=183234 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02965 1 f08a9573-061a-11ef-aff4-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=183233 1-s2.0-S2351989424001690-main.pdf 1-s2.0-S2351989424001690-main.pdf 1 440F4E928E2492EDBDC54A68A32AFD98 d9e77ff432c0e6db31101085ff8f9a5c33745e3f49394c96e684efabcf86d767 6bfe6e7d-061b-11ef-aff4-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=183235 Biotehniška fakulteta 0 0 0