The month of May has been another busy month for the LIFEstockProtect project. In all three project regions, activities have been getting off the ground, with in-person events becoming more frequent as the weather warms up. Further groundwork has also been put in to enable further events, with preparations continuing for the establishment of the Alpine LIFEstockProtect Competence Centre Network.
Please also read: April 2021 News Update
Appearance on national television
A Portuguese television crew has just recorded footage about LIFEstockProtect in Tirol. The report regarding the project will be broadcast in Portugal later in 2021.
Preparation for the summer
More action is set to take place in the field as summer is now upon us. The first competence centre visits are due to take place in the next months and building upon the foundation put in place last month, preparations for the Alpine LIFEstockProtect Competence Centre Network have continued. The third information session for parties interested in becoming a competence centre was held. Here, the project partners gave an overview of the project and presented the competence centre concept. In addition, they answered any outstanding questions that the participants had. In addition, the project is preparing competence centre checklist for the upcoming visits of prospective competence centres, in order to ascertain information about what kinds of training their farms and pastures permit.
Aside from that, lobbying activities have also taken place with the help of a paper put together by the project on the financing opportunities for livestock protection from within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU. In Austria, Umweltdachverband and BIO AUSTRIA Niederösterreich & Wien have used the gathered facts to promote the inclusion of livestock protection to support farmers in the upcoming distribution of agricultural and rural development funds by the Austrian government. The project had further success in getting its message out there by its inclusion in the LIFE WolfAlps EU conference “Coordinated actions for wolf-human coexistence across the Alps”, where Max Rossberg, LIFEstockProtect’s project manager, introduced the project to the conference’s participants.
Project on the road
After a long time without any physical events, the first fence building seminar and training for emergencies took place in Bavaria. Project partners from across Bavaria, including OPUS and BUND Naturschutz in Bayern, were present, as well as the European Wilderness Society from Austria. Nine participants from the agricultural community and other branches took part in this training.
In South Tyrol, Julia Stauder, the project technical manager, met with a group of livestock owners in Villnöss who are beginning livestock protection practices this summer. In addition, there was an exchange of experience and best practice. The potential for collaboration with LIFEstockProtect was raised, with the opportunity for excursions to see the innovative concepts put in place there.
The Austrian capital, Vienna, received its very own exhibition about volunteering, featuring LIFEstockProtect volunteers. In the centre of historical Vienna, at Heldenplatz, an information board about the support of volunteers in nature conservation is adorned with the picture of LIFEstockProtect volunteers from the European Wilderness Society during their time volunteering in Tösens in 2020. With more tourists arriving in Vienna during the summer season, the project is set to receive even more exposure!
