ITACA promotes a sustainable economic and spatial development based on a better integration of nature preservation and a careful economic utilisation of natural resources by eco-tourism. Most of the ITACA project territories are rich in wetlands and forests. The main aim of the ITACA project is to preserve these unspoiled areas from being damaged by unsustainable development. All partners of the ITACA project face the challenge of how to protect and develop their rich natural heritage. For this, an effective networking of preservation strategies and regional development policies is needed and new strategies which include economic, financial and juridical tools have to be used. Co-operation of the different regions should help to implement these measures. Expected Results: The project will conduct a transnational legal study to guide local decision-makers in land use and forestry assistance. Also programmes involving private landowners will be set up. Campaigns to update the capacity of managers and operators of nature preservation zones to strike the right balance between nature preservation and tourism exploitation will be organised. Moreover, a transnational marketing study is expected to attract public and private investment and to create and/or reinforce ecological corridors. These should be correlated with two specific products of eco-tourism: cycling and fluvial tourism. A mutual brand depicting the natural areas involved (potentially usable for a transnational tourism package) should be designed. Further planned project results are: -Improving knowledge by policy-makers on natural heritage protective regulations and the evolving trends, -Operative integration of natural heritage protection into the economic and spatial development policies and a better co-ordinated approach to land-use policies within its regions, -Steps towards public and private investments to create ecological corridors correlating them to specific eco-tourism products concerning forests and wetlands, -Improved conservation management and reduced human impact on the wilderness and parks through further promotion of management plans, -Raising the awareness of natural sites in the general public.