ALFAwetlands Annual Meeting

From 8th till 12th of May ALFAwetlands Annual meeting took place in France. Main hosting partner was the French National Centre for Scientific Research, based in Toulouse. Beside Toulouse, partners also visited one of the ALFAwetlands Living Lab France sites -Rampillon, located close to Paris.

Please also read: ALFAwetlands press release

Meeting Agenda

More than 60 in person and online participants joint this important event. Beside project partners, Advisory Board, European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency and siter projects representatives, students, media and local stakeholders joint proper sessions of the Meeting.

Project partners reported about tasks, already implemented during the project first year as well as discussed and planned upcoming activities.

In addition, ALFAwetlands General Assembly meeting, Living Laboratories presentations and poster sessions, as well as number of field visits were part of the event.

Meeting results

Since ALFAwetlands project consists of 7 Work Packages (WP), meetings and discussions´ results on each WP were presented. Considering this, under:

WP1: Maps and data bases will be created; Remote sensing is used for research on wetlands management and restoration types; Assessment of restoration success will be linked more closely to Wet Horizons sister project

WP2: Different steps of the co-creation process were presented and tested during the trainings; Stakeholders engagement process was discussed

WP3: Harmonised methodologies for further analyses & data gathering will be delivered in the end of May; work on GHG emissions & C-stock change assessment models for wetlands & restoration measures as well as Report on remote sensing and GIS models to track ecosystem respiration in wetlands are in progress; Inventory of Biodiversity and other Ecosystem Services of European wetlands will start soon

WP4: European peatlands areas will be identified; Meteorological data will be used in geo-physical modelling; Task force for forestry modelling and joint modelling protocol will be launched

WP5: Surveys for citizens and landowners will be carried out in 2024; Scaling up the economic and social impacts to the EU level with the GLOBIOM model will take place

WP6: Internal and external communication channels and tools were reviewed; Collection of information about upcoming partners´ events for their further promotion started; Organisation of Living Labs Open Days was brainstormed in groups and presented; Interviews with ALFAwetlands partners and stakeholders were conducted

WP7: Project management and reporting requirements were highlighted.

Sister projects

One of the important Meeting sessions was conducted with the ALFAwetlands sister projects. Among these projects are:

RESTORE4Cs
WET HORIZONS
REWET

Each sister project presented its objectives, Work Packages and plans. All participants agreed on the need for further cooperation and possible joint deliverables submission. Besides, joint participation in the important and each other events were discussed. Partners started scheduling joint meetings.

Living Laboratories

Unique Living Laboratories, located in the different ALFAwetlands countries, are one of the most important elements of the project. Many of them have gained interesting research knowledge and facing same challenges, therefore experience exchange is very important. Besides, various research activities will take place in the Living Labs within the course of ALFAwetlands.

For better visualisation and networking, ALFAwetlands partners conducted Living Labs poster sessions and exchanged experiences and ideas.

Field visits

Of course, it is always important not only to hear, but also to see project sites, discover what is going on there, meet local actors. Therefore visits to all three ALFAwetlands Living Lab France sites was included into the programme.

Partners visited totally different wetlands areas, located at:

Rampillon: artificial wetland, supporting water purification and biodiversity in the agricultural drained area
Garone: located close to Toulouse and suffering from human impact
Pyrenees: with the long history and rich biodiversity.

This was a great pleasure to meet all of our partners in person in France. And we will do our best for ALFAwetlands proper implementation and wetlands restoration for the future!