We assessed the socio-economic impacts of a Hungarian conservation project supported by the EU’s LIFE framework, Securing prey sources for endangered Falco cherrug and Aquila heliaca population in the Carpathian basin. Our role was to find out how the main target groups of the project (hunters and farmers) benefited from the project outcomes, namely the increased number of predator birds and their preys, considering both financial and social aspects. With our survey questions, we not only aimed to find out about the direct financial and social impacts (e.g. increased income, profit investments, cooperation links), but also to dig deeper to find information on attitude change and sustainability of the project results. Our study showed that half of the stakeholders had economic benefits derived from the project, while more than 83% would like to continue to participate in similar conservation projects. Read more about the project here.
