Since December 2021 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, in partnership with Geonatura, was participating in “Development of a monitoring program for large carnivores with capacity building of stakeholders in the monitoring and reporting system“, within the OPCC project “Development of Monitoring Systems for Species and Habitat Types” implemented by Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. Experts from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, which are also part of the LIFE Lynx project staff, implemented different activities with the goal to collect data needed for reporting about population status towards the Habitat Directive, and also to test and prepare Croatian national lynx monitoring program. Knowledge and data gained during the implementation of the LIFE Lynx project were greatly used to successfully implement this task, and monitoring program is primarily based on the experience from the past six years of the LIFE Lynx project.
OPCC project “Development of Monitoring Systems for Species and Habitat Types” united 20 institutions and over 250 experts in development of monitoring programs for 338 species of flora and fauna and habitat types in Croatia. Implementation of this project is an important foundation for efficient management of protected species in Croatia, but the next necessary step is active implementation of prepared monitoring programs. Considering the LIFE Lynx project is reaching its end, it is of utmost importance that Croatian state authorities now take an active role in lynx population monitoring and management, in order to maintain positive effects of our project and secure the long-term conservation of the Dinaric lynx population. For sure, we will regularly remind them of this.
Croatian lynx monitoring program is available here (in Croatian language).