January 2021 News Update

The first month of the new year has been a busy one. We started to collect data for the stakeholder analysis (preparatory action A2), participated in online events about livestock protection in Austria and Italy, and, eventually, organised and successfully held our first public online conference with more than 500 participants.

Online events – the new way to do networking

On 13th of January, Naturschutzakademie organised a webinar about livestock protection. They shared the general need for measurements in Austria and practical tips on how to do so. Several LIFEstockProtect partners participated in the event, which led to an interesting discussion and formed the basis for fruitful future collaborations.

On the 16th of January, the online conference Fauna 2021 took place with the topic “The wolf in Italy: current knowledge and future prospects”. Well-known experts from all over Italy presented the latest research in this field. The LIFEstockProtect project was also presented at this event. The approach “from the farmer for the farmer” received wide approval and aroused interest among the conference participants. Among the nine invited speakers was Piero Genovesi. He is the managing director of ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Environmental Research) and presented the current status of the first national wolf monitoring in Italy. They expect the first results in April. 

Simone Angelucci, veterinarian in the Majella National Park, Abruzzo, reported how livestock owners in the National Park in the middle of the Apennines have learned to protect their herds efficiently. This is particularly interesting because the region has one of the highest wolf densities in the world. You can also have a look at our trip to Majella in October 2020 to learn more about the situtation. He emphasized that there is no universal solution, but that livestock protection is effective given that farmers also receive the necessary technical and financial support. Duccio Berzi, expert in nature conservation and wildlife management, reported on new proactive livestock protection measures with GPS collars. They are currently being tested in the Veneto region of Italy. Like this, cattle farmers will be informed by SMS as soon as a wolf approaches their herd.

Online Alpine Livestock Protection Conference

Finally, we concluded the month with the official public Kick-off of the LIFEstockProtect project with the first multilingual Alpine Livestock Protection Conference. More than 500 people from 29 different countries participated in the event. A very practical focus characterised the event. Four farmers from Austria, Germany, and Italy shared their experiences and tips on why and how to implement successful livestock protection measures. Did you miss the conference? You can watch the recording on Youtube and you can download the presentations of the speakers and the Q&A here.

The day was rounded off by an online press conference that led to plenty of press coverage after the event. Here are some of our favourite articles from RTL, Bioland, Tiroler Tageszeitung, and BR24.

27/11/2021 RTL
27/01/2021 Tiroler Tageszeitung
27/11/2021 BR 24
27/01/2021 Bioland

Thank you for his very interesting morning. Congratulation to the team who organised the event! I’m looking forward to the next 5 years.

Andrea E.
Conference attendee

A first quarter with many achievements

The first four months of LIFEstockProtect ended with a project visit from NEEMO. During the first day of the meeting, the beneficiaries presented the progress of the preparatory A actions and the extensive press and social media coverage. In the first four months alone we counted 64 press appearances. The first quarter of a project usually is spend setting up the management structure and administrative procedures. Besides doing so, the LIFEstockProtect project also initiated all preparatory A actions and even almost completed some of them. For instance, the development of a training protocol for scatdogs, developed by Naturschutzhunde, is in its final stages.

We made also great progress in our stakeholder analysis. Based on the experiences of previous projects like LIFE WolfAlps EU, the A2 action team, led by Naturschutzbund Österreich, developed an extensive stakeholder matrix for the project region. We aim to identify who the key stakeholders are not only by ranking them according to their importance and influence on the project, but also according to their level of connectedness with other stakeholders. This will allow us to create a livestock protection network analysis that will, eventually, facilitate implementation of livestock protection measures.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *