The European Green Belt initiative is a community-led effort to protect nature and help the environment and communities grow together along the path of the former Iron Curtain. The term describes both an environmental project and the area it covers. This project is supported by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and was once led by Mikhail Gorbachev. The goal is to create the main part of an ecological network that stretches from the Barents Sea to the Black and Adriatic Seas.

As an area, the European Green Belt follows the route of the former Iron Curtain. It connects national parks, nature parks, biosphere reserves, protected areas that cross country borders, and other important natural areas along or across the old borders.

Background

In 1970, satellite images showed a dark green area of old-growth forest along the border between Finland and Russia. In the early 1980s, scientists found that the area along the inner German border, between Bavaria in the west and Thuringia in the east, was a safe place for several rare bird species that had vanished from other parts of Central Europe. This happened because human harm to the environment was less in these border areas, which were often closed to the public, allowing wildlife to be affected less by human activities.

After the Cold War ended in 1991, strict border rules were no longer used, and the border zones gradually opened. This began with the reunification of Germany in 1990 and continued as new countries joined the Schengen Treaty as part of the European Union's expansion. At the same time, large military bases and training areas near the border zones were shut down. In many cases, it was unclear who owned these lands, leaving their future uncertain. Because of this, the conservation group Green Belt was formed to protect the natural areas along the former Iron Curtain.

Route

The Green Belt follows the path of the borders that separated Eastern European communist countries from Western capitalist countries during the years 1950 to 1999. It is divided into four parts:

• Fennoscandian Green Belt: Norway, Finland, Russia.
• Baltic Green Belt: Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Lithuania.
• Central European Green Belt: Poland, Germany (the inner German border), Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Italy.
• Balkan (or South Eastern European) Green Belt: Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Turkey.

History

The Green Belt initiative began with the Green Belt Resolution of Hof, Germany, in December 1989. This happened one month after the Berlin Wall fell. More than 300 environmentalists from East and West Germany created and signed this document. It started the first projects to protect the area between the two German states. Later, the idea expanded to Europe. In 2003, a conference on the European Green Belt was held. At this meeting, it was decided to form a working group, with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as the leader. IUCN and the Ferto-Hanság National Park in Hungary organized the first meeting of the working group, which took place from September 9 to 12, 2004. In the years that followed, the working group, along with people who care about the Green Belt, developed a Programme of Work. They also suggested that officials in each country along the Green Belt be named as National Green Belt Focal Points by their environment ministries. In 2010, the Environmental Ministers of Russia, Finland, and Norway signed an agreement to protect the Green Belt in Fennoscandia. In November 2010, the Binding Award was given to five people for their long-term work in protecting the Green Belt. For many years, people have discussed making the European Green Belt a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Organisationalstructure

The initiative has a group of official representatives for the three regions listed above (called Regional Coordinators) and for each country (called National Focal Points). These representatives were chosen during the first European Green Belt meeting in 2003:

• Fennoscandian Green Belt: Association of Reserves and National Parks of Russian North-West (Baltic Fund for Nature)
• Central European Green Belt: Bund Naturschutz Bayern (Friends of the Earth Germany)
• Balkan or South Eastern European Green Belt: EuroNatur

The Green Belt vision is carried out in the regions by many people who work in nature conservation and sustainable development. These individuals help either through projects or by volunteering.

Ecological values

Biologists observed that military activities along the border helped protect wildlife in several ways:

• Stopping the use of pesticides helped protect many rare insect species.
• Keeping the area's plants short made it harder for forests to grow continuously, which helped protect animals that need open spaces.
• In a forested area between Bavaria and Bohemia, 18 years after the border barrier was removed, deer still avoided crossing the border, similar to how livestock are trained not to cross certain areas.
• Craters from old landmines have turned into ponds that animals use.
• In the area between Bulgaria and Greece, there are many nests of eastern imperial eagles.
• Along the River Drava, which forms the border between Hungary and Croatia, distrust between the countries stopped river development projects. This kept the river and its banks natural, including sand cliffs that are home to sand martins. The river also created areas of land on either side that are not farmed and now support wildlife.
• Along the coast of the Mecklenburg area, limited access to stop people from crossing by boat or swimming helped protect coastal wildlife.

Cultural values

It has been proposed to develop both the natural and cultural heritage from the Soviet period. This includes connecting many historical sites in the Green Belt with natural areas to create a living monument that shows the history of the Cold War in the 20th century. In the European Green Belt, cultural heritage has already been studied and developed in several places:

• The Borderland Museum Eichsfeld in Central Germany has a permanent exhibition that explains the European Green Belt. A hiking trail follows the path of the former Iron Curtain, where visitors can see preserved parts of the original border structures.
• On Mount Brocken in Germany, the former patrol path used by border guards has been turned into a hiking route called the "Harz Border Path."
• In Slovenia’s Nature Park Goričko, border stones with information plates have been placed to tell visitors about the history of the Iron Curtain and the natural features that developed because of this history.
• Military heritage along the Latvian Green Belt has been studied and organized into a database and map for visitors. This includes nearly 100 stories from contemporary witnesses.