In the City of Ljubljana – European Green Capital of 2016 – we have formed a partnership for the sustainable management of urban forests. The purpose of the partnership is to continue to appropriately care for urban forests, to tend to them in harmony with nature, and to offer relaxing, physical, and educational content for visitors.

At the end of July 2018, we signed a co-financing contract for the URBforDAN Project – Management and Utilization od Urban Forests as Natural Heritage in Danube Cities, to be implemented within the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme and supported by the European Reginal Development Fund. The kick-offl meeting of all partners will take place in Ljubljana between 12 and 14 September 2018 and the participants will be introduced to all the details related to the project, as well as take a look at the area in question.

Maintaining the “green lungs” of the city

Within the URBforDAN Project, which began on 1 July 2018 and will continue until 30 November 2020, we will reward accomplishments and efforts towards the maintenance of the “green lungs” and biotic diversity so far. We will address the preservation of natural values, the sustainable use of natural resources and the development of the social functions of urban forests in the Danube area. The purpose of the project is to create better utilisation of forest areas, which are used for various purposes, for example sports and recreation, education, relaxation, sustainable tourism and other.
Among the urban forests of Ljubljana, we will devote special attention to Golovec, chosen as the location of this pilot project with which we aim to establish an appropriate way for efficient joint management of the forest, particularly by including all target groups.

Collaboration with interested parties is of key importance

A particularity of the project is our participatory and integrated management or urban and suburban forests, both important areas of natural heritage. We expect that through the project we will improve the collaboration among key interested parties (forest managers and owners, users and visitors, the professional public, non-governmental organizations…), especially through their active participation in project activities and actions.
We will develop the most efficient form of collaboration for the connection of these groups under the mentorship of the City of Ljubljana and the Slovenia Forest Service. This will also be the basis for the preparation of international guidelines and transfers of good practice into other European cities.

COL as the project’s leading partner

12 project partners are participating in the URBforDAN Project, as well as four associated project partners. The City of Ljubljana, the leading partner, is joined by Vienna (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), Zagreb (Croatia), Belgrade (Serbia), Cluj-Napoca (Romania), and Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine). The partnership is complemented by the Slovenia Forest Service, Főkert – a non-profit organization that manages forests and parks in Budapest, the companies Hrvatske šume d.o.o and JP Srbijašume, as well as the CLuj-Napoca Metropolitan Organization. Prague, Podgorica and Sarajevo, as well as the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), within the framework of the United Nations, are the associated partners of the project.

The project’s total value for all participants is €2,788,566.61, the amount of EU funds’ co-financing is €2,370,281.58.