Natura 2000

Natura 2000 sites are part of the European Union’s conservation network, established to protect natural habitats, wildlife, and plants with the aim of preserving Europe’s biodiversity. These areas cover 18% of Europe and 20% of Hungary.

Challenge

Prioritizing sustainability

BirdLife Hungary, the organization responsible for managing the Natura 2000 network website in Hungary, approached us with the goal of modernizing the platform. One of their key challenges was making e-learning materials accessible and developing a clear, sustainable content structure.
A year after the website launch, we had the opportunity to contribute to another exciting project: the creation of an interactive map that enables farmers to easily access relevant Natura 2000 recommendations by entering their agricultural areas.

Solution

Complex backend processes and streamlined interfaces

Given the limited budgets of both projects, managed by a civil organization, it was crucial to carefully discuss priorities and identify areas where compromises might be necessary. For the website's design, we started with a pre-existing template, which we customized extensively in many areas.

One particularly exciting aspect of the project came a year later. 

During the development of the farmer map, we not only had to find a solution for the fast and aesthetically pleasing display of large volumes of GIS data, but also enable the entry and storage of individual agricultural areas. 

Additionally, based on the overlap between agricultural areas and various Natura 2000 sites, we made relevant conservation recommendations easily accessible and downloadable. A key focus was ensuring user-friendly interfaces for farmers, while for the organization, we simplified the process of entering interconnected GIS, image, and textual data by creating a complex data import function.
 

Our contribution

Website design   •   Website development   •   Projectmanagement