Project to Preserve Narrow-Leaved Ash in the Danube Basin Launched

The first meeting of the international INTERREG project “Strategies for the Conservation of Narrow-Leaved Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia) in the Danube Basin – SCAN-DANUBE” was held on 27 and 28 May 2025 at the Faculty of Forestry of Mendel University in Brno, officially launching the project’s implementation.

The Faculty of Forestry of the University of Banja Luka were represented by Prof. Branislav Cvjetković, PhD, as the project coordinator, Prof. Milan Mataruga, PhD, communications coordinator, and Senior TA Ranko Vasiljević, MA, member of the project team. The meeting was also attended by representatives of associated partners from the Republic of Srpska – Boris Marković, MA, from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, and Nedeljko Jović from the Public Enterprise “Forests of the Republic of Srpska” a.d. Sokolac.

The total value of the project amounts to €2,263,144.27, with a budget of €230,555.00 allocated to the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Banja Luka.

The project coordinator is Mendel University in Brno, and partner institutions include the Austrian Research Centre for Forests, the Slovenian Forestry Institute, the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology of the University of Zagreb, the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Banja Luka, and the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Protection of the University of Novi Sad. Associated partners from Bosnia and Herzegovina are the Public Enterprise “Forests of the Republic of Srpska” a.d. Sokolac and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Srpska.

The project will be implemented from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028, with the aim of preserving the biodiversity of floodplain forests in the Danube Basin, which are endangered by the mass dieback of the narrow-leaved ash.

Over the next three years, data will be collected on the biology and health of this species, causal factors will be identified, and action plans will be developed for each partner country with the aim of establishing effective and sustainable strategies to prevent further decline of ash populations.

The project foresees numerous benefits for the Faculty of Forestry and the University of Banja Luka, including networking with partner institutions, procurement of modern equipment, opportunities for researchers to work in laboratories in Brno, Ljubljana, Vienna, Zagreb and Novi Sad, and the publication of joint scientific papers, manuals, and forest management guidelines.

Additional plans include training sessions, practitioner workshops and knowledge transfer from the project to the forestry sector.