Project JoNeF – Joint Network for wild Fungi
The project JoNeF, that means Joint Network for wild Fungi, presented in November 2022 by ISPRA to IMPEL (European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law), was approved by the General Assembly on 8th June 2023.
The project started in July 2023 and will end in December 2024.
ISPRA is the Project Leader and will contribute with 4 staff units. At the moment the project involves 21 European countries, but other member states or institution may be involved, with the aim of creating a network of stakeholders interested in the knowledge and conservation of macromycetes in Europe.
In recent years, the awareness of the need to include the Fungi Kingdom into European environmental policies, on a par with Animals and Plants, has grown, in order to protect these organisms in their habitats. Therefore, JoNeF’s main goal is to integrate Fungi into biodiversity monitoring plans, in the European legislation on nature protection and in decision-making processes, to implement a comprehensive conservation strategy.
In this context, the project aims to establish common procedures for the census and monitoring of macromycetes in Europe as a basis for the development of homogeneous data collection activities in the EU.
National environmental institutions and Ministries can coordinate these activities, involving mycological associations, private entities and universities in the collection of data. The IMPEL Network is the right place to work together for institutions that are implementing their national Fungi monitoring systems or intending to do it. With this spirit JoNeF was born.
The CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity,1992) is the main legislative driver for JoNeF.
Non-legislative drivers include:
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- activities carried out by the IUCN (International Union for Nature Conservation) through the Fungal Conservation Committee, the Fungal Specialist Group and with the Global Fungal Red List Initiative
- the FFF – FFF – Fauna Flora Funga initiative for the promotion of Fungi protection, which calls for the replacement of the phrases “Animals and Plants” and “Fauna and Flora” by “Animals, Fungi and Plants” and “Fauna, Flora and Funga”
- at European level the Council of EMA (European Mycological Association) called “European Council for the Conservation of Fungi – ECCF (ECCF)” that works for the conservation and knowledge of Fungi
- the letter published in Science by J. Sills “Include macrofungi in biodiversity targets“
- the open letter of the European Forest Institute (EFI) on 14 December 2022 on the crucial role of Fungi in the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity
- the activities of the ISPRA Network for the study of Mycological Diversity (NMD), which has launched a national fungal census initiative and implemented the Fungi Information System (SIF).
By the end of 2024, the JoNeF project aims to develop a Guidance providing recommendations and proposals for the inclusion of mushrooms in environmental policies.
Currently, Countries involved in the project are 21 (see the map):
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- Albania, National Environment Agency
- Croatia, State Inspectorate of the Republic of Croatia
- France, INRAE
- Greece, Forest Research Institute – Elgo Dimitra
- Greece, University of Thesaly
- Hungary, Ministry of Agriculture
- Iceland, Icelandic Institute of Natural History
- Ireland, Teagasc
- Italy, Italian Institute for the Environmental Protection and Research – ISPRA
- Kosovo, Ministry of Environment Spatial Planning and Infrastructure
- Kosovo, Universiteti i Prishtinës
- Latvia, Latvian Museum of Natural History
- Lithuania, Department of Environmental Protection under the Ministry of Environment
- Malta, Environment and Resources Authority (ERA)
- Malta, EcoGozo Directorate
- Montenegro, Environmental Protection Agency of Montenegro
- North Macedonia, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Faculty of Natural Science and Mathematics, Institute of Biology, Mycological Laboratory
- Poland, University of Łódź
- Portugal, Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra
- Portugal, Universidade de Évora
- Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi
- The Netherlands, Omgevingsdienst Noord-Holland Noord
- The Netherlands, Dutch Mycological Society
- Sweden, SLU Artdatabanken / Swedish Species Information Centre
- Switzerland, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
- UK, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
JoNeF members include also the Fungal Diversity Survey (FUNDIS) and the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).
The first product of the JoNeF project was approved by the General Assembly at its meeting on June 26-28, 2024: the JoNeF Survey Report.
The JoNeF project will be proposed for a second phase (2025-2027), with the objective of developing a common European process for the acquisition of data and macrofungal indicators for forest biodiversity and for the assessment of habitat quality and climate change.