The Emerald Network is an international network of protected areas designed to protect rare species of flora, fauna and their habitats. It was established by the Council of Europe under the Berne Convention to conserve biodiversity outside the EU, bringing together areas with special conservation status.
These data were presented on April 28, 2026 in Chisinau at the final conference of the LIFE RENATA project, which was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Environment and international experts, including the Secretariat of the Bern Convention, as well as project partners from Moldova and Greece.
The results of the LIFE RENATA project include a Roadmap for the transition of the Emerald Network to the Natura 2000 network with a horizon of 2030, which outlines the necessary legal, technical and institutional steps to bring it in line with the EU Birds and Habitats Directives, a comprehensive analysis of 61 emerald sites in the country covering 2,744.6 km² and protecting 27 habitat types and 161 species, a GIS database, a knowledge repository platform with 99 documentary resources and tools for monitoring, reporting and site management.
According to the project analysis, the database of the Emerald Network in Moldova has not been updated since 2017 and the network sufficiency index was 24.1%, which means that out of 312 assessed habitats and species, 134 did not have sufficient coverage in the designated sites.
The roadmap identifies the necessary steps to address these gaps and was submitted to the Ministry of Environment in December 2025. Earlier, as part of the EU-Moldova verification process finalized in July-August 2025, the Moldovan delegation committed to promote it as a key instrument in the context of accession negotiations.
What is LIFE RENATA?
LIFE RENATA is the first project co-financed by the European Union’s LIFE program and implemented in the Republic of Moldova since the country joined the program in November 2022, becoming the third country outside the EU to take this step, after Iceland and Ukraine. The project lasted 28 months, from February 2024 to May 2026, and aimed to align the Emerald Network, established under the requirements of the Berne Convention, with the standards of the European Union’s Natura 2000 network. The partnership included six organizations from Moldova and Greece: Lever Development Consultants S.A. (coordinator), Institute of Forestry Research and Management (ICAS), EKBY, kartECO, AO EcoContact and the Moldovan Ministry of Environment.
Project coordinator Artemis Margaritidou from Lever S.A. said: “LIFE RENATA marks the beginning of a common journey towards better conservation, deeper institutional cooperation and a clearer framework to bring Moldova in line with Natura 2000 standards. Through this first LIFE experience in the Republic of Moldova, we have not only developed tools, guidelines and technical outputs, but also built trust, shared knowledge and created a basis for future actions.”
What are the next steps?
The roadmap foresees as immediate steps in the pre-accession phase the adoption of a new Law on Nature Protection fully implementing the Birds and Habitats Directives, planned for 2026, the establishment of a Natura 2000 Coordination Unit in the Ministry of Environment and the approval of the Natura 2000 Standard Data Form as a national template. The management of the knowledge repository platform will be transferred to ICAS.
The project results are available on the LIFE RENATA project website accessible through the European Union LIFE program portal.
