Since 2009 Fauna & Flora International has been assisting ADEPT in conservation of the Târnava Mare area, with technical assistance and with funding. In 2013 FFI began a major partnership with ADEPT, under which it will help ADEPT develop its role further in protecting the High Nature Value Farmed landscapes of Transylvania.

FFI has always carried out biodiversity conservation on the principle that landscape-scale projects will only be successful and sustainable if they give benefits to local people who live within the landscapes – and who have helped to create them. This principle clearly applies strongly to the Târnava Mare area in Transylvania.

FFI’s interest in Târnava Mare is recognition of the global importance of the area. The Târnava Mare grasslands are at the heart of the best-preserved large-scale High Nature Value lowland farmed landscape in Europe, in Transylvania, and have some of the highest plant diversity ever recorded in the world.

In 2009 the Arcadia Fund provided a grant to the FFI Eurasia team, to support ADEPT in its range of activities to conserve the Tarnava Mare landscape. As part of this joint project, ADEPT and FFI have:
• further evaluated the Târnava Mare region and its global significance
• increased project focus on applied conservation activities, including raising the capacity of the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Service for farmers, a key element of ADEPT strategy for the long term conservation of the area
• identified the critical capital of the landscape: ecological corridors and, biodiversity hotspots that must be protected
• improved actions to address immediate and chronic threats to key biodiversity features.

In 2012, FFI funded a Masters Degree in Conservation Management at Cambridge University for a ADEPT staff member, Lenke Balint, who  has established in UK and is presently one of ADEPT UK trustees.

After over 5 years cooperation, in 2013, FFI and ADEPT entered into a strategic partnership which will strengthen the protection of European High Nature Value Farmed landscapes, not only in Târnava Mare area, but also more broadly in Romania and in Europe.

FFI is conserving the planet’s threatened species and ecosystems – with the people and communities who depend on them.