The Scandinavian Peninsula is located in Northern Europe, and roughly comprises the mainlands of Sweden, Norway and the northwestern area of Finland.
The Baltic Sea Region, alternatively the Baltic Rim countries, and the Baltic Sea countries/states, refers to the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, including parts of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Unlike the "Baltic states", the Baltic region includes all countries that border the sea.
Green belt or greenbelt is an area of protected open space around an urban area.
A transboundary protected area (TBPA) is an ecological protected area that spans boundaries of more than one country or sub-national entity. Such areas are also known as transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) or peace parks.
Europe, the westernmost portion of Eurasia, is often divided into regions and subregions based on geographical, cultural or historical factors. Since there is no universal agreement on Europe's regional composition, the placement of individual countries may vary based on criteria being used. For instance, the Balkans is a distinct geographical region within Europe, but individual countries may alternatively be grouped into South-eastern Europe or Southern Europe.
EuroVelo is a network of 17 long-distance cycling routes criss-crossing Europe, in various stages of completion. When completed, the EuroVelo network's total length will be almost 90,000 km (56,000 mi). As of November 2022 more than 56,000 km (35,000 mi) were in place. EuroVelo is a project of the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF).
Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland is a German non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to preserving nature and protecting the environment. The name means "German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation". Its subtitle Friends of the Earth Germany indicates that BUND is a member organisation of the international network Friends of the Earth (FoE).
The German Green Belt is a project of Bund Naturschutz (BUND), one of Germany's largest environmental groups. The project began in 1989 facing the 870-mile (1,400 km) network of inner-German border fences and guard towers formerly separating East and West Germany. It is one of the world's most unusual nature reserves, lying along the old "Death Strip," turning a monument to repression into a symbol of renewal.
Involuntary park is a neologism coined by science fiction author and environmentalist Bruce Sterling to describe previously inhabited areas that for environmental, economic, or political reasons have, in Sterling's words, "lost their value for technological instrumentalism" and been allowed to return to an overgrown, feral state.
During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain was a political metaphor used to describe the political and later physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, its allies and neutral states. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union, while on the west side were the countries that were NATO members, or connected to or influenced by the United States; or nominally neutral. Separate international economic and military alliances were developed on each side of the Iron Curtain. It later became a term for the 7,000-kilometre-long (4,300 mi) physical barrier of fences, walls, minefields, and watchtowers that divided the "east" and "west". The Berlin Wall was also part of this physical barrier.
Kai Frobel is a German environmental ecologist. When he was young he lived very near the German part of the Iron Curtain, on the west side, near Coburg. He realized that the public-excluded security zone along the Iron Curtain had become a de facto wildlife reserve. When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, he was instrumental in getting these wildlife reserves preserved as the European Green Belt. He runs the Ribbon of Life project which seeks to preserve these areas. He is associated with the BUND.
Shebenik National Park is a national park in eastern Albania adjacent to the border with North Macedonia. It encompasses 34,507.9 hectares (345.079 km2) and is specifically marked by a mountainous landscape supplied with glacial lakes, valleys, dense coniferous and deciduous forests and alpine meadows and pastures. Elevations in the park vary from 300 metres to over 2,200 metres above the Adriatic at the peak of Shebenik and Jabllanica, hence the name. It dwells a number of endangered species that are fast becoming rare in Southern Europe, including the brown bear, gray wolf and balkan lynx. The abundance in wildlife can in part be explained by the variety of vegetation types and remote location.
The Iron Curtain Trail (ICT), also known as EuroVelo 13 (EV13), is a long-distance cycling route along the route of the former Iron Curtain, from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. It is 10,550 km long. During the Cold War, the Iron Curtain delineated the border between the Communist East and the capitalist West, with the East being the Warsaw Pact countries of the Soviet bloc and the West being the countries of NATO.
For a small country, Albania is characterised by a considerable wealth of terrestrial and marine ecosystems and habitats with contrasting floral, faunal, and fungal species, defined in an area of 28,748 square kilometres. Most of the country is predominantly of Mediterranean character, comprehending the country's center and south, while the alpine affinity is more visible in the northeast.
The Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast stretches in the south-eastern Adriatic Sea beginning at the Gulf of Drin in the north, across the port cities of Shëngjin, Durrës, and Vlorë, to the Bay of Vlorë in the south, where the Albanian Riviera as well as the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast begins.
The Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of Albania encompasses the beech forests of Gashi in Valbonë Valley National Park and Rajcë in Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park. They form an integral section of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians because for their outstanding naturalistic value and the diverse biodiversity.
The Borderland Museum Eichsfeld is a history museum located in Central Germany at the former inner-German border between East and West Germany. It deals with the Cold War in general and the German division in specific.
Hans Stadler was a German physician and naturalist. He had absolute pitch and took a keen interest in the study and description of bird calls and a wrote a book, Die Vogelsprache (1919), on the subject in collaboration with Cornel Schmitt. Along with Schmitt he made bird recordings in the field before 1914.
