Workshops on Natura2000 Monitoring and Conservation Management

From 19th to 21st October 2015, Eurosite organized a three day workshop on “Natura2000 Monitoring: integrating conservation management and monitoring”, with the support of XCT (Catalan Land Stewardship Network).

As part of Natura 2000 Biogeographical Process, an initiative of the European Comission, Eurosite organized a three-day workshop on "Natura 2000 Monitoring: integrating conservation management and monitoring".

The workshop took place in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) and was attended by more than 50 people from many different nature conservation organizations, local authorities and other land trusts from all around Europe (UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Romania, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, etc).

On Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th the workshop addressed three main topics regarding conservation management and monitoring of Natura2000 sites: the roles of new technologies in informing site management, species monitoring projects and habitat monitoring projects.

The first day the attendees arrived at Casa del Mar on Monday 19th. The workshops started and were introduced by Stefan Versweyveld, Eurosite President, and followed by the contributions of Neil McIntosh, the Deputy Executive Director of ECNC, and Angelika Rubin, DG Environment of the European Commission.

The session about the role of new technologies in informing site management began with five 20 minute presentations addressed by Palma Blonda (CNR ISSIA, Italy); Zoe Russell (Scotland, UK); Anna Allard (SLU, Sweden); Ricardo Díaz-Delgado (Estación Biológica de Doñana, Spain); and Pete Bunting (University of Aberystwyth, UK). Some experiences in mobile device apps and remote sensing for the use in monitoring were shared.

On Tuesday 20th the workshops continued with Species and Habitat monitoring experiences introduced by David Parker (Eurosite Secretary, UK) and Clive Hurford (Natural Resources Wales, UK). The session held nine 20 minute presentations conducted by Jonas Grahn (Länsstyrelsen Västerbotten, Sweden), Tom Bereton (Butterfly Conservation, UK), Oscar Gordo (Estación Biológica de Doñana, Spain), Phil Wilson (the Species Recovery Trust, UK), Rienk Jan Bijlsma (Alterra, the Netherlands), Karen Wilkinson (Natural Resources Wales, UK), Stanislav Brezina (Krkonose NPA, Czech Republic) and Wojciech Mroz (Ecological Consultant, Poland).

While the coffee break, the attendees had the chance to visit the Knowledge Market where some projects were exhibited as posters, books and leaflets. This resulted in a meeting point where experiences were shared and where opportunities for networking were found.

The three-day workshop finished on Wednesday 21st , when the attendees had an early start trip by bus from Barcelona to Museu del Ter (Manlleu, Spain). There, the session was introduced by Phil Wilson (UK) and then Clive Hurford and Lydia Alvanou (Axios Delta, Greece) shared their experiences and afterwards the attendees spread out in four groups to discuss and develop recommendations for the integration of conservation management and monitoring.

After a delicious lunch, the attendees went to the Ter River accompanied by Marc Ordeix and Núria Sellarés (CERM, Center for the Study of Mediterranean Rivers), who explained their monitoring project of plants, invertebrates and fish in “Illa del Sorral”. The attendees had the opportunity to see some of the invertebrates of the Ter River (most of them indicating the low quality of its water) and also saw how electric fishing was conducted in the river to monitor fish species.

The journey ended with a Eurococktail back to Barcelona, where many people brought typical food from their countries. A tasty experience to share.

In conclusion, it was a a very interesting workshop, with different experiences from around Europe shared, and a series of recommendations for integrating monitoring and conservation management developed, for further debate within the appropriate working parties of the European Commission. The workshop presentations and final report will be available to download soon from the Natura 2000 Communication Platform.

ECNC (European Centre for Nature Conservation) is the lead contractor to support the EC in the development and implementation of the Process, which includes a series of networking events (seminars, conferences, workshops, ad hoc expert meetings, study visits, etc.). ECNC does this with support from our sub-contracted consortium partners (CEEweb for Biodiversity, Eurosite, the European Landowners Organisation, the EUROPARC Federation and ILE-SAS).

Read also Eurosite's chronicle here.