Summary
The EU-funded ZUSIMLANA project strengthens cooperation between Austria and Hungary in order to effectively contain the spread of the Asian hornet. The project is clearly focussed on One Health and focuses not only on beekeeping, agriculture and nature conservation, but also on the health risk to humans. The development of joint structures will protect biodiversity, pollination security and agricultural stability in the long term. ZUSIMLANA is the first funding project in both Austria and Hungary that is specifically dedicated to the Asian hornet.
Project description
ZUSIMLANA strengthens transregional cooperation between Austria and Hungary in a natural area that shares ecological, agricultural and economic challenges. Many of these challenges can only be overcome with difficulty, slowly or at high cost without structured co-operation.
The focus is on a current and highly relevant threat: the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina), which was first detected in the Hungarian border region in 2023 and in Austria in 2024. Its rapid spread jeopardises bee colonies and thus pollination services, affects biodiversity and can have a negative impact on fruit growing and viticulture, where both feeding damage and the risk of injury to agricultural workers can occur. With increasing nest density, especially in urban areas, the protection of the population also becomes more important: encounters during gardening work, in children's playgrounds, in parks or during leisure activities can lead to sting injuries and, in some cases, serious reactions. Media reports from the border regions already show that beekeepers and farmers are expressing great concern.
ZUSIMLANA takes this specific threat as a starting point to establish functional, long-term and cross-sectoral cooperation structures. The immediate relevance of the topic makes it easier to achieve rapid success, which significantly increases trust, motivation and the effectiveness of the network.
Benefits of the project
Without coordinated activities between the affected areas and countries, the region is threatened with high ecological and economic damage. Due to the high flying ability of Vespa velutina, unilateral action by one country can hardly be effective - recolonisation across the border would be possible at any time.
ZUSIMLANA is therefore creating a joint, cross-border strategy for monitoring and controlling the Asian hornet, efficient communication and reporting channels between authorities, research, beekeeping and agriculture, and a permanent network that can also cope with future invasive species and environmental problems.
Through the One Health approach, the project makes a sustainable contribution to safeguarding biodiversity, pollination performance, agricultural production, human health and regional resilience.
Project details
Project title: Strengthening trans-regional cooperation between the beekeeping, agriculture and nature conservation sectors to solve cross-border problems using the example of the Asian hornet problem
Project acronym: ZUSIMLANA
Project coordination: Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE) - Magyar Agrár- és Élettudományi Egyetem
Project management AGES: Dirk Louis Schorkopf
Funding: EU funding programme - ETC (Interreg)
Projektlaufzeit: 01.10.2025-31.03.2027
Last updated: 16.02.2026
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