BESTbelt Balkan Regional Conference in Bulgaria was a success!

The BESTbelt and Balkan Green Belt community strengthened connections and exchanged about projects along the European Green Belt during this year's Balkan Regional Conference in Haskovo in May 2024.

 

The recent Balkan Regional Conference perfectly demonstrated how important in-person meetings are to re-connect, to trigger exchange from person to person and to stimulate ideas and critical thinking. During the BESTbelt Balkan Regional Conference which took place from 13 – 16 May 2024 in Bulgaria, over 40 participants from 9 countries met to learn and share experiences about their project work along the Balkan Green Belt. The 2,5 days conference featured presentations, thematic group working sessions and a field trip to four BESTbelt projects which are located and implemented in the Sakar region (transboundary region between Bulgaria, Greece and Türkiye). An exchange session on how to stay connected after the conference, how to capitalize on the conference results and how to get more support for the European Green Belt concluded the conference on the last day.

Apart from stimulating discussions, a fair with regional products from many Balkan countries, an emotional moment during the conference was the release of two birds which were previously rescued and taken care of in a Wildlife Rescue Center that is run by Green Balkans, which was a strong reminder of the need to protect wild species and their habitats for which the European Green Belt offers a great opportunity.

 

The EuroNatur team looks forward to continuing the close collaboration with all organizations that participated and to meeting again in October for the Pan-European Conference in Latvia to continue this fruitful exchange!

 

A big thanks goes again to the Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation and to Green Balkans for the tremendous local support with organizing the conference!

 

Contact: Jessica Bitsch

E-Mail-address: jessica.bitsch@euronatur.org