📅 Implementation: Mar 2025 – Mar 2027 (24 months)
💶 Total Budget: €849,637.00 | ERDF Contribution: €679,709.60
🤝 Partners: 2 institutions
🎯 Type: Standard project | Biodiversity |RS02.7

Summary

CLOSER TO NATURE strengthens cross-border cooperation to protect biodiversity and natural ecosystems in the Bihor–Hajdú-Bihar Euroregion. By enhancing institutional capacity, buying and installing modern surveillance and mobility equipment, and engaging local communities through awareness-raising activities, the project offers a coordinated approach to combating environmental crime and preserving green and blue infrastructure. Joint trainings and an integrated action plan provide a strategic framework for long-term environmental resilience in the region.

Project Aim

The project aims to enhance nature conservation and biodiversity protection in the Bihor–Hajdú-Bihar cross-border area through coordinated enforcement, institutional capacity building, and citizen engagement.

Objectives

✅ Develop and implement a joint cross-border action plan for protecting green and blue infrastructure
✅ Strengthen institutional capacity through equipment and training to prevent and combat environmental crimes
✅ Increase public awareness on biodiversity and ecosystem preservation
✅ Promote joint Romanian-Hungarian cooperation in environmental protection

✅ Foster sustainable cross-border strategies for long-term biodiversity conservation

Key Activities & Results

🔹 Joint Action Plan – Development and implementation of a coordinated cross-border plan for biodiversity protection, including 2 cross-border thematic workshops on emerging trends and common procedures for the prevention of environmental crime.
🔹 Public Awareness Campaigns – 5 awareness events (3 in Bihor, 2 in Hajdú-Bihar) aimed at educating at least 200 participants on biodiversity conservation, complemented by two summer camps engaging local communities and young people.
🔹 Enhanced Surveillance Capacity – Strengthening the operational capability of LP1 through the procurement of thermal imaging drones, camouflaged surveillance cameras, thermal binoculars, UTVs, off-road vehicles, snowmobiles, a mobile command post, an inflatable motor boat, and a transport truck to improve monitoring and rapid intervention in protected areas.
🔹 Mobility & Monitoring Equipment for the Project Partner – Supporting the on-ground activities of PP2 by purchasing hybrid 4x4 vehicles, mountain bikes, laptops, and trees for awareness-raising and biodiversity enhancement actions.

🔹 Joint Exercises – 3 joint training sessions in protected areas on both sides of the border to simulate cross-border responses to environmental threats.
🔹 Sustainability Measures – Signing a partnership agreement to upscale and continue joint solutions beyond the project’s end through post-project events and cooperation.

By investing in technology, cooperation, and civic involvement, CLOSER TO NATURE builds a future-ready framework for biodiversity protection and cross-border environmental responsibility.

For more details, consult the project fact sheet:  ENG 

Partnership

Lead Partner: Bihor County Gendarmerie Inspectorate (RO)
Project Partner: Hajdú-Bihar County Development Agency (HU)

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