Active participation in the partner cities

The City of Ljubljana and Slovenian Forest Service organized their 3rd series of URBforDAN workshops with forest users. The project team intended to finalize all the ideas related to the focus area – the Golovec Hill – with forest users and later present them to forest owners. The aim was to involve key stakeholders in the Integrated multi-use Management Plan (IMMP) planning process through development of “draft action plans” with concrete measures and activities.

Key topics and measures

The project team presented key topics and measures developed under Strategic parts of IMMPs to the participants, who were also informed about the progress since the last workshop. Discussion on concrete measures and activities, as well as steps for their implementation followed the introductory part explaining the importance of the entire process.

Fruitful group work among Stakeholders

Group work exercise was especially fruitful, as about 30 participating stakeholders from various groups – joggers, cyclists, downhill cyclists, dog-walkers, school and kindergarten teachers, boy scouts, NGOs, City of Lubljana department representatives, etc. – were divided into four groups. Each discussed specific topic, e.g. education trails and polygons, entrance points and urban equipment, separation of trails and code of conduct. Their contribution was particularly valuable, as the workshop results will be used as a basis and further developed in Operational parts of IMMPs.

An award-winning film in Belgrade from Interreg Eco Karst

In Belgrade URBforDAN project team, City of Belgrade administration and serbian forest management Srbijašume, held their next workshop in the premises of the City Administration of the City of Belgrade. 30 representatives of institutions representing interested users of Avala Forest as well as one representative of the private sector attended the workshop. The attendants were shown an award-winning film from another Interreg project – Eco Karst - to show what progress is achieved with an EU contributed Interreg project. We really recommend this movie to you. Have a look:

We really recommend this movie to you:

Recreation and protection of the forest in harmony

The workshop was joined by the representative of the project leading partner City of Ljubljana, Matjaz Harmel, who has reported the experience of the city of Ljubljana in the work and on organizing workshops. Participants of the workshop presented the questionnaires, the development of a strategic plan, the mapping of the ecosystem services and the extension of the boundaries of the protected area of ​​Avala as elementary parts of the project.

Conclusions

The workshop was continued with all the participants writing their suggestions, interests, problems and obstacles related to Avala and thus helping to achieve the goal. At the end of the workshop, it was concluded that attention should be paid to avoiding conflicts between different ecosystem services, by also ensuring, that the capacity of the forest is not endangered by the planned increase in the number of tourists. All activities must be harmonized with the protection of forests and conservation of nature and biodiversity.