On 19 and 20 June 2017 the project team met for the first time to launch the LIFE ELCN project. Beneficiaries and partners set an ambitious goal for the three year project period: to establish a European Land Conservation Network (ELCN), which will remain active long after the project has ended.

On June 19 and 20 2017 the first project team meeting was held in Germany. All project beneficiaries and partners set an ambitious goal for the three year project period: to establish a European Land Conservation Network (ELCN), which will remain active long after the project has ended. The project is being coordinated by NABU/BirdLife Germany, however, Eurosite will be charged with the long-term management of the network as the acting secretariat after the project has ended.

The objective of the project is twofold. It aims at testing several private land conservation tools with an eye to promoting their replication at a wider level wherever feasible and proposing policy actions to support them, as well as – in the process – at developing a robust, well-informed European network on private land conservation with a clear long-term strategy (after LIFE) and strong international allies.

The project’s work programme focuses on implementing and assessing innovative private land conservation tools and models, exchanging knowledge and experience about these tools, identifying legal and political obstacles to up-scaling them, and publicising private land conservation among relevant stakeholders. By doing so, the project intends to contribute to the further development of private land conservation tools and the expansion of their use. At the same time, the project will continue and strengthen the networking among the practitioners of private land conservation in the EU and abroad.

As outputs, the project will produce assessments of the conservation tools tested in the project as well as guidelines and policy recommendations for private land conservation in the EU.

For more information about the progress of the project, please follow this website closely.