Planning for Wildlife Corridors in the Area of Railway Infrastructure: a case study in Slovenia

Abstract

Rail transport affects wildlife by creating barriers to their movement, commonly known as the “barrier effect”, and by directly increasing mortality due to collisions with trains. We addressed this issue by preparing a proposal for a protocol designed to ensuring wildlife migration corridors in the area of railway infrastructure and by presenting an overview of mitigation measures and examples of good practices to minimize barrier effects and decrease railway mortality. The protocol was based on findings from relevant scientific literature, on our own experiences, which we gained from planning and monitoring measures to reduce the run-over of wildlife (especially ungulates) on roads and highways, and from studying wildlife train collisions in the area of the Slovenian railway infrastructure in a selected five-year period. With the proposed protocol, we try to unify approaches to improve the methodology for assessment of the impact on wildlife and to obtain the most realistic and comparable results on local, regional and national scales. The proposed protocol will benefit stakeholders, who are involved in the planning, design and construction of new railway lines or the modernization of existing ones, and other stakeholders, who are involved in the environmental assessment process before a decision about implementation is made.