Fifth Stakeholder Meeting in Romania on February 25th
On February 25th 2025, our partner National Meteorological Administration of Romania held its Fifth Regional Stakeholder Meeting, which counted with the presence of representatives of various governmental and public institutions, as well as members of agricultural organizations.
Attendees were welcomed by Mr. Daniel Alexandru, Meteo Romania representative and Down to Earth partner, who opened the meeting introducing the main discussion topics, i.e. generational renewal, depopulation and aging populations in rural areas, workforce shortcomings, and technological equipments in rural areas. He highlighted the importance of carrying out these types of meetings to exchange with stakeholders and decision makers both at the national and international level. In this sense, he celebrated Meteo Romania's involvement in the Down to Earth project.
Mr. Alexandru also gave a presentation on the structure, mission and main milestones of Down to Earth, including the lessons learned during the project's study visit to the German Neckar-Alb region in June 2024. During his presentation, he introduced some of the German good practice cases and outlined their main characteristics.
Attendees shared insights on the relevance of Down to Earth in the Romanian context and from their specific viewpoints. Among them, the Director of the Department for Sustainable Development within the General Secretariat of the Government voiced how well the Down to Earth project aligns with the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of Romania 2030, namely in the contribution to its Sustainable Development Goal 2. She also expressed how instrumental and valuable the project is in the deployment of the National Strategy for Circular Economy and the Circular Economy Action Plan. The Head of the Press Office of the Agency for Financing of Rural Investments (AFIR), in turn, emphasized the value of learning from Down to Earth's identified good practice cases, many of which he was able to observe personally as a stakeholder during the project's study visits.
Mrs. Andreea Popescu, from Meteo Romania, introduced Down to Earth's second Thematic Report on "All types of access barriers to young farmers in depopulated rural areas" to the audience. She focused on both the identified Romanian good practices as well as the main take-aways of the regional report. The meeting then gave way to a collective discussion between all attendees.
A key outcome of the fifth Regional Stakeholder Meeting was the common agreement on the importance of the involvement of the beneficiaries in the activities of the Down to Earth project, as well as the need to improve Romania’s Strategy for Sustainable Development through the good practices identified by the project's stakeholders. Learning from and undertaking these good practices at the level of farms and in rural areas is crucial for the country's sustainable rural development.
Agrointeligenta, a specialised media, attended the meeting and prepared a video report.