IENE activities
Annual General Assembly and Open Day
IENE will arrange annual general assemblies (GAs) of members to openly discuss statutes, administration, funding, projects and strategic issues and elect the SC. This meeting will be combined with an international IENE conference, or with a national Open Day. These meetings will be hosted by different organisations and countries from year to year. During the Open Day, experts and public from the hosting country can meet IENE members and discuss local or national issues.
The Open Day and General Assembly 2009 took place in Évora, Portugal, between 22 and 25th of April. Read more...
IENE international conferences
IENE international conferences on ecology and transportation provide a recurring interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of current research, knowledge and practical experience between the sectors of environment and transport, between scientists and practitioners, in Europe and worldwide.
The conferences aim at presenting cutting-edge research, identifying urgent questions and problems, discussing effective solutions, and outlining the paths for upcoming activities in transport and infrastructure ecology. The aim is to hold the conferences at a two to four year interval. For practical reasons, the IENE member assembly will be combined with the international conference during a conference year.
Each IENE international conference develops its specific thematic focus, but also allows discussions on a broader spectrum of topics from within the general scope of IENE.
The IENE conference and General Assembly 2010 will take place in Velence, Hungary September 27 - October 1. The theme of the conference will be "Improving Connections in a Changing Environment". Read more »
Projects
The most prominent “product” of IENE so far is the COST 341 Action (Habitat Fragmentation due to Transportation Infrastructure) within the framework of the COST (Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical research) program of the European Community. The COST 341 Action started in 1998 and was completed with international conference in Brussels in November 2003. Experts from over 21 European countries were actively involved.
The COST 341 Action resulted in a European Handbook (Wildlife and Traffic) on how to avoid Habitat Fragmentation due to Linear Transportation Infrastructure, a European State of the Art Report on Habitat Fragmentation due to Linear Transportation Infrastructure in Europe (European Review) and National State of Art Reports from 13 countries. The the COST-341 products have been translated into many languages and are known worldwide.
New IENE initiatives have been proposed and an ongoing project includes a handbook on monitoring the effectiveness of fauna passages and other fauna provisions.
Exchanging knowledge and news
The core of IENE is the network of members, and the communication between people. Hence, one of the main activities within IENE will be to promote communication and exchange of knowledge, ideas and news. The IENE web site will play a central role in this, as well as electronic newsletters and e-mail lists. The new IENE website, due to open in late summer 2009, will provide tools like RSS feed, a data base of reports and publications within the field of ecology and infrastructure, e-mail subscription, etc. Registered IENE members can access internal pages on the website, publish documents, join a discussion forum, etc.
General Assembly excursion in Portugal, 2009