The availability of modern, reliable, and high-quality computers and related accessories is a key prerequisite for PA administrations to ensure efficient management work and thus effective conservation of the areas. However, all eight target protected areas of the project are lacking modern and up-to-date computer hardware and software as well as modern accessory equipment such as printers, scanners etc.

On average, the IT hardware and software currently used by the PAs is much older than five years. The departments of communication, research, and monitoring are underequipped regarding IT equipment and therefore they cannot meet the required work standards which possess a serious obstacle for the long-term conservation of the areas.

In addition, particular problems for coordination and communication work have arisen due to the CoVID-19 pandemic. As in-person meetings and conferences have become strongly restricted or even impossible, the target PAs and MENR now heavily rely on video conferencing to conduct important discussions with a broad range of stakeholders and partners. This development is very likely to persist beyond the duration of the pandemic.

However, currently, the large conference rooms at MENR and the PA administrations are underequipped for conducting particularly large video conferences where the distances between the participants and the web cameras, microphones, and video screens are very large. This strongly reduces the communication quality and represents a major problem in important discussions, as participants cannot be adequately heard nor seen on both sides of the discussion.

All in all, the SNPA project, therefore, aims to upgrade the computer hardware and software equipment of the eight target areas and provide high-quality equipment to the eight PAs and MENR for conducting video conferences in their large conference rooms.