The LIFE-IP 4 NATURA project (LIFE Integrated Project – LIFE IP) has a duration of 8 years (2018-2025) and a total budget of € 17 million euros, of which € 10.2 million are EU financed and € 4 million come from national participation of the Green Fund and the other participating partners. N.E.C.C.A’s budget amounts to € 813.450,00. This is the largest program in nature and funding and the first completed LIFE project approved for Greece.
Its goal is to substantially strengthen the protection of Greek nature in a way that ensures the country’s compliance with European legislation. For this reason and for the first time, actions are coherently integrated into a single program that covers the full range of parameters related to nature protection: politics, economy, society, scientific knowledge.
Within the context of LIFE-IP 4 NATURA, twelve partners under the coordination of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, join forces creating a “shield” for Greek nature, designing new protection and management tools and highlighting the opportunities offered by the harmonious coexistence of man with the natural environment.
The eight (8) recently approved national Action Plans for the protection of endangered species and habitat types concern the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), the Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo), the endemic plant Silene holzmannii, the Balkan chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra balcanica), the endemic frog of Karpathos island (Pelophylax cerigensis), the indigenous trout species of Greece, the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), the Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), the black vulture (Aegypius monachus), as well as the priority habitat 2250* Coastal dunes with Juniperus spp.
N.E.C.C.A.’s main role in LIFE-IP 4 NATURA will be project management, coordination of pilot management plan implementation in four Natura 2000 sites, as well as the monitoring of the Priority Action Framework for the Programming Period 2021 – 2027.