Authors: Selva, Nuria; Křenová, Zdenka;Kreft, Stefan;Ibisch, Pierre;

Conservation and peace are closely tied together. Conservation challenges are typically complex and require
cooperative solutions and long wind, given only in peaceful circumstances. That administrative borders do not align with biodiversity is part of
that complexity, and cross-border management is the best solution. If we look at it the other way around, functional biodiversity and healthy
ecosystems as a source of human life are essential conditions for peace. Conservation, thus, is an unrenounceable contribution to peace-keeping.
Conservation initiatives such as ’peace parks’ (1) or transboundary UNESCO sites pacify cross-border conflicts. The European continent in its
largest part has enjoyed three decades of peace, integration and important achievements in conservation (e.g., 2). However, some of these
achievements have been eroded lately. Increasing competition and aggression, based on mixtures of intolerance, populism, nationalism and autocracy
is putting democracy and European values, including biodiversity conservation, on a delicate balance. Likewise, implementation of conservation
policies, exemplified by the EU Habitats and Birds Directives, is disrupted by nationalist, populist and anti-democratic politics – see the long
struggle to preserve Bialowieza Forest (3) – and the proliferation of border walls and fences, recently intensive along the border of EU eastern
countries (4, 5). Fatally, disdain of human rights and international law have culminated in a war in Europe, initiated by the invasion of Ukraine
by Russia, killing countless people, destroying biodiversity and representing an obstacle, insurmountable for the time being, to cooperation,
including research and nature conservation. In view of the close intertwining of biodiversity conservation and peace in general, and the dramatic
challenges European societies are increasingly facing, what shall we do as conservation professionals? This panel shall gather standpoints and
questions from the conservation community and, in close interaction with the audience, provide a platform for discussion of these overly pressing
issues.