Category Archives: Meeting

Partners unite in the White Carpathians

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On 2nd-3rd of March 2022, the Centralparks team had the chance to meet again in-person as well as online to evaluate the work done and prepare plans for the last month ahead. The partner meeting took place in the beautiful scenery of the town of Strážnice in the White Carpathians with online connection for partners joining remotely. The meeting was organised by the Czech partner Education and Information Centre Bilé Karpaty.

Project finalisation phase

On the 1st of April 2022, the Centralparks project will celebrate its 3-year birthday, and with it the end of the project. The month of March will be an important month for the partnership, with several milestones ahead. The two days spent jointly in the Czech Carpathians provided a good platform for partners to review the status quo of each work package, activities finalised and the last tasks ahead, including the final conference of the project.

With project activities finalised, it is worth to keep an eye on the project achievements, which is being continuously updated.

Project outcomes will be presented to the wider public on the 23-24th of March 2022, during the Centralparks Final Conference. The conference titled “Transnational cooperation for the sustainable future of the Carpathian region” will gather Carpathian experts to discuss the contribution of the Centralparks results to the sustainable future of the Carpathians and beyond.

Click here to secure your spot on the Centralparks Final Conference!

Fruitful discussions continued beyond the meeting room, as team members were taken on a journey through the landscape and cultural diversity of the Moravian Carpathians.

Cultural diversity of the Moravian Carpathians expressed in folk costumes

The participants of the meeting were guided through an exhibition of traditional folk costumes by Zlata Potyková from the National Institute of Folk Culture. This exhibition is located in the castle of Strážnice and displays models of folk costumes from a range of ethnographic regions in the Czech Republic. Ms Potyková not only described the different parts of the costumes, but also explained their development, functional use and symbolic significance. She pointed to the fact that folk costume diversity also reflects the natural conditions of each region, particularly in terms of material utilisation and farming methods in the countryside. Therefore, folk costumes as well as other elements of traditional folk culture interact with each other and also affect biological diversity.

Ecosystem services lesson

Based on the initiative of students of environment-oriented secondary schools and participants of round-table discussions of stakeholders of the Carpathians Convention, partners could experience first hand the ecosystem services lesson, which was compiled under the 3rd Thematic Work Package, developed by the colleagues of the Education and Information Centre Bílé Karpaty. The lesson targeting students between 14-18 is aimed to improve student cooperation while integrating elements of field research teaching as well as modern digital technologies.

Folk architecture as a reflection of the landscape

Similar to folk costumes, also folk architecture is a reflection of the natural conditions of a region. Examples of folk architecture from the region of south-east Moravia are presented in the open-air museum of Strážnice, where Ms. Potyková guided the participants. She introduced them to the different ethnographic regions and described the construction and utilisation of particular buildings. Karel Fajmon (Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech republic) completed the ethnographic interpretation by explaining the connection between diversity in folk architecture and differences in natural conditions. For example the use of local building materials (stone, timber, clay, straw) and the arrangement of buildings and land parcels in the landscape influence the scenery, farming methods and also have an impact on biodiversity.

Centralparks Danube-ipoly National Park-31560.jpg

Carpathian Network of Protected Areas Steering Committee roundtable meeting: intensifying Carpathian cooperation

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How can sustainable development and nature conservation be strengthened in the Carpathian region in the long-term? The roundtable meeting of the Steering Committee of the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (CNPA) aimed to answer this question. The online meeting took place on the 2nd of December within the Interreg CE Centralparks project, made possible with the support of the Interreg DTP ConnectGREEN project as well as the Carpathian Convention. 

The overall objective of the virtual gathering was to harmonize activities related to the CNPA, with special attention to the two ongoing projects sponsored by the European Commission, as well as the recent outcomes of the COP6. 

The meeting was moderated by the interim chair of the Steering Committee of the CNPA, Mircea Verghelet, Director of the Piatra Craiului National Park in Romania. Opening remarks were made by Bożena Haczek, Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment, on behalf of Poland, holding the new Presidency of the Carpathian Convention. She expressed her gratitude to the Carpathian Convention Secretariat as well as the Centralparks and ConnectGREEN projects for supporting this meeting. It is the first Carpathian meeting within the Polish presidency after the successful COP6.

Furthermore, Mr. Harald Egerer on behalf of UNEP Vienna-Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention highlighted the important role of CNPA within the Carpathian region and the opportunity raised by the Centralparks and ConnectGREEN projects. He welcomed the nominated Steering Committee members and thanked them for their participation. The meeting provided the opportunity for a round of introductions by the new and already confirmed steering committee members, representing all Carpathian countries. Moreover, the projects Centralparks and ConnectGREEN were presented to identify the opportunities of support. 

Jointly for the future of the Carpathians

Looking into the outcomes of the COP6, the CNPA has important tasks ahead in the field of biodiversity protection in the Carpathians but also on a global scale, contributing to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Therefore, it is a priority to activate and fully realise the CNPA, to connect the institutional with the ecological networks and to work towards achieving that the CNPA becomes a new and leading example of a fruitful network of protected areas not just in Europe but all around the world. 

Next year will be an important one for the CNPA. Upcoming activities include a second roundtable meeting of the CNPA Steering Committee within the 6th Forum Carpaticum, planned to be held in Brno, Czech Republic on 21-25 of June 2021 and the CNPA Conference organised within the ConnectGREEN final conference, to be held in Visegrád, Hungary, on 28-30 of September 2021. The Steering Committee also formulated its intention to intensify the cooperation between the Alpine, Danube and Carpathian regions, based on the Memorandum of Cooperation between the three networks ALPARC, DANUBEPARKS and the CNPA.

It was a very informative meeting providing a lot of inspiration to the Centralparks partners, encouraging us to continue with our efforts to contribute to a more sustainable Carpathian future.

For more details on this event, click here.

Online Centralparks and CEETO synergy meeting

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On the 28th of July 2020, the Centralparks and CEETO project team representatives held an online synergy meeting. The meeting aimed to discuss outcomes of the CEETO project, to share experiences about tourism in and around protected areas and to search for possible meeting points for future cooperation.

CEETO stands for Central Europe Eco-Tourism: tools for nature protection. The project lasted from 01.06.2017 to 31.05.2020 and aimed at implementing an innovative governance system for tourism, based on a participatory planning approach. This helped to improve the managing capacities of protected areas managers. Moreover, CEETO aimed at identifying and testing innovative management and monitoring tools specifically focused on sustainable tourism activities. One of the most important outcomes of the project is eight action plans created for tourism development within the pilot protected areas. The outcomes of the pilot results were summarised into joint Guidelines for developing sustainable tourism in protected areas as well as a Manual for sustainable tourism governance for protected area managers. Moreover, the CEETO project aimed to capitalise common knowledge and set up the CEETO Network platform, which serves as a knowledge hub and exchange platform. 

Centralparks aims to integrate biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Carpathian region. The joint strategy for local sustainable tourism development based on the natural and cultural heritage of the Carpathians will be targeted at Carpathian protected area administrations, local communities as well as municipality authorities. The objective of this strategy is to re-conciliate and integrate nature protection with local socio-economic development and to raise support of local communities for the conservation of biological and landscape diversity in the Carpathians. Therefore, a joint meeting between representatives of Centralparks and CEETO provided a very valuable opportunity to identify synergies.

Common issues of both projects

Both the CEETO and Centralparks project target the same issues of biodiversity protection in touristic areas. Both projects are dealing with places exploited by unsustainable tourism, many disagreeing stakeholders and a lack of cross-regional and international cooperation, among others. The Centralparks team was delighted to have an opportunity to ask arising questions and learn from the experience of the CEETO project.

Fruitful discussion

During the meeting, many questions were discussed, mostly focusing on sustainable tourism development in and around protected areas, building international and local cooperation, stakeholder involvement and sharing project outcomes with the public. The Centralparks representatives are very thankful for the CEETO representatives’ time and efforts to discuss several relevant topics. The synergy meeting gave us many new ideas and questions for consideration and we will gladly keep in contact for future cooperation.  

For further information on the CEETO project, you can revisit the presentations of the Final conference here.

Partners prepare for the next steps in the Polish Carpathians

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29-30th October, Sanok, Poland. The two-day Project Partner and Steering Committee meeting of the Centralparks project united partners to evaluate the very first months of the project and jointly plan the next steps.

The partner meeting was organised by Ekopsychology Society, leader of the 1st Thematic Work Package, in the beautiful Polish town Sanok, which lies directly below the Carpathian Mountains. The meeting was opened with a welcome speech by Zbigniew Niewiadomski from Ekopsychology Society, introducing the natural and cultural heritage of the region. After that, Isidoro de Bortoli, Project Manager from the Lead Partner Eurac Research guided the participants through the agenda of the meeting and presented the current state and achievements of Work Package Management. Special focus was put on reviewing the first six months of the project implementation.

What are the keys of effective communication and how can all partners be ambassadors of the project? The answer was explained in the presentation on Work Package Communication by Hanna Öllös from the European Wilderness Society, leader of the respective Work Package.

The 1st Thematic Work Package was presented by Zbigniew Niewiadomski, who focused on giving an update about the achievements of the Thematic Transnational Task Forces and next steps of the work plan. Borbála Major from the leader of the 2nd Thematic Work Package, Duna-Ipoly National Park) shared the current status of the work and explained to the partners the following tasks in developing innovative conservation planning methods. The 3rd Thematic Work Package, focusing on the development of the Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit was presented jointly by Jan Kadlecik (from the State Nature Conservancy SK) and Zuzana Okániková from Pronatur NGO, presenting the first results of the Gap analyis, prepared to identify the current status in ecosystem services implementation and address gaps in the implementation of ecosystem services policies in the target countries.

During the next session, Eleonora Musco from Eurac Research detailed the role and planned activities of the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention in project implementation, highlighting various events where Centralparks will be present, and provided an update on the ConnectGREEN project, focusing on strenghtening green infrastructure in the Carpathians.

Inbetween presentations, partners had the chance to stretch their legs and take their fruitful discussions outside: a guided tour through the Museum of Folk architecture in Sanok showcased the rich cultural heritage the Carpathian region holds in itself, which gave new inspirations for each participant.

The second day was reserved for the Steering Committee meeting, during which important tasks and responsibilities were layed down. Recently, the project Advisory Support Group was set up, bringing together Mr. Harald Egerer, Head of the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, Mr. Boris Erg, IUCN Director of the Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Andreas Beckmann, Regional Director at WWF Central and Eastern Europe. The consortium will follow the project progress closely and will provide expertquality check of Centralparks results.

Finally, the partnership agreed on the next meetings and big events, such as the organisation of the Carpathian Network of the Protected Areas roundtable, one key result in the project. Filled with inspiring talks, important to-dos and Carpathian team spirit, partners returned home, to continue working for the Carpathians, one of the wildest sides of Europe.

The first meeting of the Thematic Transnational Task Force on the Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit

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23th July 2019, Bratislava, Slovakia

Ecosystem services, often referred to as “nature’s benefits,” draw attention to the ways that people depend on a healthy environment. Ecosystem Services support life (e.g., by providing air, water, food, raw materials, medicines), security (e.g., by mitigating extreme weather events, spread of vector-borne diseases), and quality of life (e.g., by supporting mental and physical health, cultural identity, recreation), among other things. Since Ecosystem Services are characterized by complex and interrelated nature, a comprehensive approach is needed in the Carpathians, to address situations where decisions potentially contributing to ESS loss would therefore have a serious negative impact on human well-being,

As part of the Thematic Work Package “Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit”, a Transnational Task Force was established for the successful elaboration of a Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit. Experts, nominated from each partner country came together for the first Task Force meeting held on 23th July in Bratislava, organised by the Work Package Leader, State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic.  


This first meeting kickstarted international cooperation and provided time for experts to share local experience, familiarise themselves with their tasks, gather preliminary results and agree upon necessary intermediary steps. During the next phase of developing the Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit, experts will have the duty to work on draft documents within their countries, engage in frequent consultations as well as the discussion and assessment of the elaborated Carpathian Ecosystem Services Toolkit. The final Toolkit will be available online in English and at least 4 Carpathian languages (HU, PL, SK, CZ).

Attending the Interreg Central Europe Project Implementation Training

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On 19th June, the Interreg Central Europe Joint Secretariat invited the Lead Partners of all newly approved projects to the Project Implementation Training in Vienna. The training offered a great opportunity to learn more about successful project management and finances, as well as to meet other projects with similar topics in the programme.

Every Lead Partner presented their project in a brief pitch, which was great to get a short introduction to the variety of projects currently implemented under the programme. Centralparks was able to meet the Lead Partner of the BEECH POWER project, with whom synergy activities will be organised in the next years!

Project Kick-off

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16-17th of April

The official Kick-off meeting of the Centralparks project took place on 16-17th April in Bolzano, Italy. The meeting welcomed 8 project partners as well as representatives of national Ministries and the Carpathian Convention. The expert meeting provided a platform for intense knowledge exchange through action plans, strategies and cooperation strategies that will provide guidance for the project.

The Centralparks project, co-funded by the European Commission through the INTERREG CENTRAL EUROPE Programme, has the overall budget of 1.6 Mio. EUR. The project unites 8 project partners and 8 associated partners from 9 European countries, aiming to harmonise management capacities in Carpathian Protected Areas. The project will support nature protection and local sustainable development, improve integrated environmental management capacities and policies, and will focus on mitigating current threats and pressures to biodiversity.

The kick-off meeting was opened by the welcome speech of Lead Partner responsible Isidoro de Bortoli, Prof. Roland Psenner, the president of Eurac Research, and Dr. Thomas Philipp Streifeneder, the head of the research institute of regional development. As the project focuses on the Carpathians which are a strong link between the project partners, Eleonora Musco, representing the Carpathian Convention officially welcomed the partnership.

Over the next 3 years, guidelines, strategic documents and pilot actions will be implemented. During the meeting, the three Thematic Work packages have been presented by the Work package leaders.  These work packages focus on the integration of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Carpathian Region, building capacities of Carpathian Protected Area managers and strenghtening ecosystem services in the Carpathians.

It was a strong and productive start. We are looking forward to the fruitful cooperation!