Last week “Dinara back to LIFE” had a joint visit with the representative of CINEA (The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency), our project advisor Mr. Joseph van der Stegen and project monitor Mr. Nikica Skroza from ELMEN EEIG. The project visit was an opportunity to make a review of the project activities, to discuss implementation results and challenges, draw policy lessons from the project, and discuss crucial activities for reporting and the After-LIFE plan.
Project manager Tomislav Hudina from Association Biom was delighted to take a presenting role and give a summary of project activities, their implementation and achieved results. The joint visit was an opportunity to discuss:
- Grassland restoration activities and evaluation of their impact
- Current status of target habitats and effects of extensive grazing
- Restoration of grazing infrastructures: wells, ponds, paths and stonewall structures
Since Dinara back to LIFE is in the final phase, continuation of project activities (After LIFE plan) was also discussed, and project team presented crucial activities for continuation of activities, initiatives and communication started by the project.
The project advisor Mr. van der Stegen was very interested in learning more about the logic behind grassland restoration intervention and getting to know the situation in the local community. The “Dinara back to LIFE” project team is very satisfied with the achieved results and the ecological impact on key habitats. Also, the project had a meaningful impact for the community (a.o. farmers and beekeepers) but also at the policy and decision-making levels.
It is really a unique opportunity to have CINEA and ELMEN EEIG representatives visiting the project and giving their feedback and perspective on the project implementation and on the broader policy context as well. CINEA highlighted the fact that the project has experimented promising grassland conservation measures that also bring benefits to the stakeholders. LIFE program is one of the best programs for nature conservation. We are very satisfied with the results of our restoration activities, but also with the social and policy impact of the project. LIFE offers a certain flexibility which is almost always necessary in nature conservation, especially regarding longer projects.
The project advisor and project monitor joint visit gave our team positive energy and motivation as we are organizing our final deliverables and events to complete the project implementation.
