First peer review, 2° day
On 20/03/2024 in Namur, Belgium was held the 2° day of the 3 days of the 1° peer review visit, and 4 study trips were carried out in order to provide examples of citizen participation.
•The first one at Flostoy, “Visit of a collaborative ponds restoration project” (Natagora): that is a project whose objective is to restore and protect ponds and their local fauna (amphibian population).
Thanks to region subsidies, Natagora collaborates with farmers, with whom it makes plans to manage and to look after the ponds. The farmers, if subsidized by the region, are obliged to maintain the ponds for at least 15 years, and the amount is between 200 - 300 € per pond.
The water has to be maintained at least until July so that the amphibians can grow up and leave the ponds, and only the 25% of it can be used for cattle but not to irrigate.
Sometimes big ponds are dug, so that they can store more water and prevent them from drying out too soon.
•The second one at Strée, “Yes we plant” initiative at Technological Center of Agronomy: which is a project that comes from an initiative of the government that after launching it, invited the stakeholders in the task force for its implementation by making a kind of “umbrella organization” for all of them. In fact, the stakeholders are the ones that did and still do the planning.
The Objective from 2019 to 2024 was to reach 4000 km of hedgerows and 1.000.000 of trees and fortunately, it was a success since the target was achieved in January 2024. So, in these years 110 km have been planted, but now the goal is 1.000 km per year.
This project has been a very mediatic one because at the beginning no one (such as journalists, newspapers) believed that such an ambitious goal could be achievable.
Is Part of the Action plan: subsidy review, plantation desk, personal advice, shared maintenance, free seedlings, let’s plant together, local plant charter that guarantees local and sustainable production of native species of hedgerows and trees whose seeds origin is also local, abc framework that stands for Agriculture, Biodiversity and Climate and it sets out framework of actions for each partner. The aim is to strengthen synergies and benefit from each other’s expertise.
With the “Yes we plant” project each audience has its own point of contact and each organization has its own expertise, for example Natagriwal responds to planting requests through the plantation desk. The follow - up is comprehensive: from the needs analysis to the payment of the subsidies. Faune & Biotopes takes care of requests from citizens, schools and municipalities. The Hedge Councils inform, raise awareness and train. In particular, the non - profit organization organizes workcamps in Wallon schools. PlantC is an initiative that offers companies the opportunity to act locally by planting. Thanks to the monitoring of the Hedge Council.
•The third one at St Georges sM, “visit of a quarry involved in a public - private partnership with the region for the consideration of biodiversity”: which tries to improve the sector’s contribution to biodiversity preservation, through activities of sensitization, good practices dissemination, quarry workers training and site managers training.
Its management plan consists in: refresh (eliminate excessive vegetation cover ensuring cliff vertically and compactness) and displace (create a new action before removing one, transfer substrate to the newly created habitat).
Results of the project within 26 quarries: +400 pioneer ponds, +30 ha pioneer grasslands, almost 400 rock shelters, 32 sandbanks for sand martins and solitary bees, 685 m of gently sloping banks, 30 floating platforms for common terns and common gulls, 29 ha of hay meadows, 78 ha of grazed grasslands, 12 bat galleries and 5800m of stone screes.
•The fourth one at Hanut, “visit to a restoration project following advocacy to citizens” (Natagora - Natagriwal): which is a still on going project, whose initiatives at the beginning came from inhabitants and local naturalists, who contacted the municipalities to say that they wanted to do something for their sites. But because the sites belonged to private owners, the municipalities contacted these land-owners to purchase from them some portions of their sites, so as to turn them into natural reserves and restore the areas. To make all this possible a proposal of 315.000 euro was made. For the management of these sites professional teams are involved, but volunteers play an important and crucial role in the management of the areas as well.
