Turning the Iron Curtain Green

The European Green Belt initiative aims to create an ecological reserve that runs from the Barents to the Black Sea, spanning some of the most important habitats for biodiversity in Europe.

By following a course that was in large sections part of the former East-West frontier – one of the most divisive barriers in history – it symbolises the global effort for cross-border nature conservation and sustainable development. The Iron Curtain Way, as wags are beginning to call it, will focus on some of Europe’s most impressive and fragile landscapes and will also increase opportunities for the socio-economic development of local communities.

The Green Belt
The Green Belt connects national parks, nature parks, biosphere reserves and cross-boundary protected areas, as well as non-protected areas along or across borders, running for more than 8,500 kilometres from the border between Norway and Russia on the Barents Sea in the north to the Albania-Greece border on the Adriatic. The Green Belt is known for its high density of protected areas – more than 3200 can be found within a 25 km zone on either side of the borders.

It will not be a consistent strip, but rather a series of core areas, corridors and stepping stones, linking a string of important habitats – a ‘string of pearls’ – some a few kilometres wide, others not even 30 metres. In most places along the Green Belt, the areas on both sides of the borders are not homogeneous, but comprise several habitats, grassland fallow and wetlands, mature woodlands, wilderness areas and man-made landscapes. Linking the areas is tremendously important for migrating species such as wolves, bears, lynx or amphibians and birds.

Former Iron Curtain
Along the length of the former Iron Curtain were military training areas, arsenals, airstrips, tank strips and waste deposits. These military areas were often depopulated and taken out of regular economic activity for 50 years or more, thus sustaining no intensive agriculture, no residential building, no quarrying or
mining, no hydrological changes and no use of fertilizers. Natural processes such as river erosion and sedimentation and the accumulation of dead wood in forests could take place unhindered. As a consequence, otherwise endangered species continue to thrive here, including wild orchids, fish otters and black storks.

On the other hand, long-term use of military areas led to a significant contamination of parts of the land and of groundwater. It is important to investigate the state of these lands, lest they pose a danger to nature or animal or human health in future. Area that was farmed or cultivated was often subject to different methods of management, which are still visible in the landscape. The Green Belt initiative aims to stop privatization and land speculation from doing irreversible damage to natural habitats and at the same time leaving local people without opportunities for self-determined development.

European Cooperation
Wonderful ideal, hard to put into practice. Cooperation between the 12 or more countries that abut the old frontier may take some time, as well as careful planning and diplomacy. The initiative’s objectives range from the local to the global, so the route of the Green Belt is divided into three regional sections for the purposes of organization :Fennoscandia and the Baltic; Central Europe; and South Eastern Europe.

How long will it be since we can walk the length of the Green Curtain? Some years, although parts of it, particularly in Germany, are well under way. The project has the modest goal of providing ‘a useful contribution to the commitments made by countries to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010’. It is certainly a space to watch.

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