The main task of workgroup 4 is to promote the importance of freshwater mussels for aquatic ecosystems in the society. This includes all relevant stakeholder (e.g. administration, NGOs, local authorities, educational bodies, water management bodies, angling- and touristic- companies) as well as the general public.

Furthermore, the task of WG4 is to foster the collaboration between the different work groups of this COST project and the implementation of the results and outcome of this project into scientific programmes, education, management and legislation.

Concrete actions of WG4 are for example:

  • Building scenarios for European mussels and the preparation of a European Action Plan for Freshwater Mussels, developing guidelines for EU and national legislation.
  • Dissemination of information (from WGs) directly to the local nature conservation bodies and to local authorities on the species/habitats of outstanding value in the areas they administrate.
  • The preparation of an Academic Textbook on the biology and ecology of freshwater mussels.
  • Dissemination (‘eMUSSELment’) of education materials on freshwater mussels, their biology and their ecosystem functions and services, as well as guidelines on their protection and conservation methods.
  • Securing the visibility and media coverage of the Action, COST, ERA and EU funding.

List of the Working Group members

You can find a list of members belonging to Working Group 1 – Diversity (according to COST declarations) below:

NameCountry
Dr Fundime MiriAlbania
Dr Grégory MotteBelgium
Dr Amra KazićBosnia & Herzegovina
Dr Milcho TodorovBulgaria
Dr Teodora TrichkovaBulgaria
Dr Lajtner JasnaCroatia
Mr Ivan ŠpelicCroatia
Dr Karel DoudaCzechia
Dr Ondřej CudlínCzechia
Prof Jouni TaskinenFinland
Dr Karl-Otto NagelGermany
Dr Katharina Stöckl-BauerGermany
Prof Juergen GeistGermany
Mr Ian KilleenIreland
Prof Ilia OstrovskyIsrael
Dr Nicoletta RiccardiItaly
Dr Vanessa ModestoItaly
Dr Halil IbrahimiKosovo
Prof Arturs SkuteLatvia
Dr Vytautas RakauskasLithuania
Dr Frankie ThielenLuxembourg
Dr Munjiu OxanaMoldova
Ms Milica JovanovićMontenegro
Mr Frank CollasNetherlands
Dr Jon Hamner MagerøyNorway
Dr Adam ĆmielPoland
Dr Anna LipińskaPoland
Dr Anna ŁabęckaPoland
Dr Cecylia WardakPoland
Dr Katarzyna ZajacPoland
Dr Malgorzata OzgoPoland
Dr Marcin CzarnoleskiPoland
Ms Anna StanickaPoland
Prof Tadeusz Zając (chair of MC)Poland
Dr Eduardo EstevesPortugal
Dr Manuel Lopes LimaPortugal
Prof Ronaldo SousaPortugal
Dr Ana Maria Benedek-SîrbuRomania
Dr Ioan SîrbuRomania
Dr Aleksandra MiloskovicSerbia
Dr Maja RakovićSerbia
Dr MOMIR PAUNOVICSerbia
Mr Slobodan ZlatkovicSerbia
Mr Stefan AnđusSerbia
Dr Miguel ClaveroSpain
Dr Noé Ferreira RodríguezSpain
Ms Keiko Nakamura AntonacciSpain
Dr Martin ÖsterlingSweden
Dr Arzu FIRAT ERSOYTurkey
Dr Emel ZERAY ÖZTÜRKTurkey
Dr Şebnem AtasaralTurkey
Dr Ümit KEBAPÇITurkey
Ms Isobel OllardUnited Kingdom
Prof David AldridgeUnited Kingdom
Prof Philip BoonUnited Kingdom