Vaclav Hlavac, from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic was awarded by the IENE 2020 conference for his outstanding and personal commitment to mitigating the negative impacts of infrastructure on nature. He has succeeded in spreading the ideas of road ecology and, above all, in transforming these ideas into practical actions on the ground at national and European level.
Vaclav Hlavac works on the protection of endangered species (otters, birds of prey, etc.). During the last 10 years he has also been dealing with these issues: influence of traffic on wildlife, mortality of animals caused by traffic, and general landscape connectivity. He is one of the authors of the Czech manual on the permeability of motorways for wildlife, a co-author of the European manual “Wildlife and traffic” and many other publications and articles.
Established in 1999, this working group published various technical prescriptions that help to effectively prevent and mitigate habitat fragmentation throughout the entire infrastructure cycle. In addition, this working group also forms a platform for knowledge exchange and awareness raising. More info about the award-winning working group here (Spanish): Fragmentación de hábitats causada por infraestructuras de transporte (miteco.gob.es)