Virtual project visit at the end of the first quarter of LIFEstockProtect

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By now, we are used to online meetings, webinars and workshops. In the third week of January, NEEMOvirtuellvisited all beneficiaries of the LIFEstockProtect project. They are responsible for monitoring LIFE projects and NGOs that receive funding from the LIFE program. Normally, the organization of the meeting would have been complicated. Thanks to online meeting tools, we were able to bring all 17 partnerstogether in the same “room” withinminutes and present the project progress as a unified team.

Positive feedback on project progress

On the first day of the meeting, all beneficiaries introduced themselves to NEEMO. This was followed by an overview of the progress of the preparatory A-measures of each action leader. In the first months of a project, the management structure and administration are usually set up. In addition, the LIFEstockProtect project has initiated all preparatory A-measures and even almost completed some of them. For example, the development of a conservation dogtraining protocol for Scatdogs is in its final stages.

The European Wilderness Society, which is responsible for the communication activities of theproject, presented the very successful outreach of the project so far – online, in printed media and through networking! We counted a total of 64 press appearances in the first quarter, an impressive number. We continued with the outlook for 2021 and the potential impact of Covid-19. Fortunately, we have so far been able to successfully resolve or prevent issues related to Covid-19. In some aspects, it enabled and will enable us to reach even more interested people, such as at the firstmultilingual livestock protection conference on 26 January 2021. The online organization of the conference enabled the registration of more than 450 interested people across Europe – which would not have been possible with an on-site event.

We ended the day with a presentation from NEEMO. Theresia Holzamer explained to us what role they play in LIFE and how they will be involved in the project over the next five years. They provide expertise combined with local knowledge and the necessary language skills to support the project administratively.

Individual consultation on the second day

The second day was dedicated to ensuring that the project management team is familiar with the financial management of the project and to clarify any open doubts. Of course, making sure that the financial side of things is done right is crucial for the success of the project. Therefore, it was also important for the project beneficiaries to be able to ask NEEMO outstanding questions in individual consultations.

Overall, the feedback from NEEMO was very positive. The fact that after four months all preparatory A measures and some additional D and C measures were initiated, that the project successfully dealt with Covid-19 and that the project outreach was extremely successful assured all project partners of the success of their continuous efforts.