Posts by Jelke Brandehof

From 27-29 September, a group of 19 international site managers and 58 Irish stakeholders gathered for the third edition of the Natural Climate Buffers Study Tour which this time took place in Ireland. Organised by Eurosite, hosted by the Community Wetlands Forum and supported by Eurosite member the National Parks and Wildlife Services as well as the Environmental Protection…

Eurosite participated in the NWE Interreg Care-Peat project partner meeting in Orléans, France, from 22-23 September 2021. Finally, after a long Covid break, it was possible to organise this meeting, be it in a hybrid form, including a real on-site visit. The meeting started by introducing the new project partners that joined by support from…

From 18 to 23 September a Twinning exchange took place between youths of The Netherlands and Poland as part of the WE Young People See Nature project. This project aims to educate youngsters by facilitating teenagers to look at Natura 2000 areas, culture and each other through a camera lens. The Twinning is an initiative…

‘What sort of scene?’ you might wonder. ‘What happened?’ you might think.Not to worry, we are not talking figuratively. With your help, they are planning to shoot a video for educational purposes to present their work. Since more than 40 years, Eurosite member the Fédération des conservatoires d’espaces naturels (FCEN) manages over 3,700 natural sites…

Together with our Dutch member Natuurmonumenten and the Natural Climate Buffer Coalition (Dutch acronym CNK), Eurosite held a workshop about natural climate buffers at the IUCN Global Congress in Marseille on Tuesday 7 September 2021. Eurosite Director Harm Schoten chaired this hybrid meeting, which was attended by 30-40 participants, in-person and online. Jeffrey Brand (Birdlife Netherlands) and Paul Vertegaal (Natuurmonumenten) introduced the natural climate buffers concept according to the…

This spring, two cranes were born in the ‘Valley van de Zwarte Been’ (Valley of the Black Brook), an area managed by Eurosite member Natuurpunt in Belgium. It is the iconic and mythical bird’s first successful breeding case in Belgium ever. The twins carry the names Gru and Dru, and are the icing on the cake for the…

The EU Nature Directives (the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive) are the backbone of the European biodiversity policy, but their implementation needs improvement. The Commission Fitness Check of these Directives pointed – among other things – to problems regarding knowledge gaps and access to data and information. The disconnection between environmental scientists, decision makers and practitioners on relevant issues linked to nature…

The pandemic had its effect on the continuation of the Eurosite Twinning Programme, were unfortunately, in 2020 no twinning exchanges were able to take place. However, little by little the world is opening up again, which resulted in the first twinning visit of 2021: the WE Young People See Nature initiative visited the Dutch island…