The project partners of the DaRe to Connect met on two-day event (22.-23. November 2018)  in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, located close to the European Green Belt. Three events took place on: the Steering Group meeting, the Working Group meeting and the Publick Kick-off Conference.

The Steering Group started the first day. It consists of one representative of each project partner. It was the first meeting of the Steering Group, so all the necessary procedure documents were submitted and adopted. The overall progress of the project was evaluated and some minor issues have been clarified, notably the budget drawdown of some partners. Overall, the project is going very well.

The main event of the first day was a Working Group meeting. The implementation of all four working package was presented by their leaders. In general, working packages started well and follow the planned schedule of the  project. The presentation of the working packages was followed by intensive discussions on details, unclarities, further steps, work coordination and many other relevant topics. In particular, WP3 Interconnected Green Belt, which is currently focused on GIS and remote sensing of the Green Belt, requires very good coordination, so that the personal meeting provides good opportunity for adjusting of processes, to clarify very specific details and to plan the next steps.

The second day was dedicated to the international conference about the project DaRe to Connect and its context.  It was organized by the BUND Bavaria, the project leader, with support of Slovak partner the Ekopolis Foundation. The conference was attended by over than 50 experts. Melanie Kreutz and Martin Kuba (Bund Bavaria) introduced the European Green Belt and as the DaRe to Connect corresponds to its concept. Markus Pochträger and Florian Danzinger (University Vienna) presented first the achievements and findings of the WP3, mainly describing the GIS and remote sensing approaches.

The “policy” part of the conference consisted of two presentations. Florian Ballnus (Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment) described the EU Strategy for the Danube region, especially its Priority Area 6 Biodiversity. Melanie Kreutz (BUND Bavaria) explained that the European Green Belt is natural part of the EU Green Infrastructure. The third part of the conference was focused on practical issues. Anke Hahn (TU Dresden) introduced the project MaGICLandscapes, which is largely D2C project compatible. Milan Janák (WWF Slovakia) explained the Alpine Carpathian Corridor, which overlaps the European Green Belt in Slovakia. The last but definitely not the least  part was a discussion. The room was full of commited experts so the discussion was long and intensive, even in the hallway, almost two hours after the conference.

All three events during two days were very successful. Internal affairs were discussed and coordinated as well as external relations were established, so the DaRe to Connect project may continue on full steam ahead!
 

Opening of the project Steering group meeting


Participants of the working group meeting. 

Project working group family photo :-)  

Melanie Kreutz (BUND Bavaria) is opening the public kick-off conference

Public kick-off event family photo :-) 

Discussions are as important part of conference as the official programme.