The new INTERREG Central Europe project HUMANITA brings together eleven partners from Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia. Scientists are working together to develop and test innovative solutions to assess the impact of tourist activities on nature, with the objective to assist managers of protected areas to safeguard the environment. Participatory monitoring involving individuals from local communities and tourist groups will deliver a new ‘common heritage’ narrative, laying the ground for transformative change and supporting positive human-nature relationships. Project outputs will help PA managers to put the right measures in the right places, make smarter decisions, prevent negative impacts, mitigate human-nature conflicts, and reduce risks.

The project focuses on the joint development of new complementary tools and methods of tourists’ impact assessment. Transnational exchanges of experiences will improve evaluation of environmental conditions and trends, take explicit managerial responses and actions, and develop information for the public and policymakers. Jointly developed pilot actions will demonstrate innovative solutions to measure the environmental impacts of tourism inside PAs.

Project partners: University of Žilina, EURAC Research, University of Parma, NOTITIA, Carinthian University of Applied Sciences, EGTC Geopark Karawanken, State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic, CEEweb for Biodiversity, Public Institution Kamenjak, Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park, Bükk National Park Directorate

Project duration: Apr 2023 – Mar 2026

Financed by: INTERREG Central Europe, Co-funded by the European Union