On May 25th PROGRESS-InterregEurope project organises its 3rd Interregional Training Workshop to show and share good practices on ecosystem services from 6 EU territories. The workshop is organised by the University of Craiova (Romania). The event is part of the EU Green Week 2021 under the theme “Zero Pollution for healthier people and planet”. Participation to this 3rd workshop is free and targeted to policy and decision makers who can improve their practise with PROGRESS methodologies.

Ecosystem services are the goods and services of nature that contribute to human well-being. Identifying, evaluating, and applying the ecosystem services approach is key to the future of European societies. The overarching theme of the workshop will be the implementation of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), a topic of increasing interest since the last decade.

Over the last 6 months project partners have analysed and discussed with their stakeholder networks that are following-up PROGRESS and identified Good Practices following the Interreg Europe GP models. “We want to bring to the European debate examples on how to implement the concept of Payment for Ecosystem Services, identified by all PROGRESS partners” says Dr. Dragos Stafanescu, coordinator of the workshop from Craiova University.

The case studies will be presented in 3 topic panels on how PES are implemented in: Forests, Farmland and National Frameworks. The array of good practices will showcase how these can be applied in other policy instruments across Europe, fulfilling this way the objective of the Interreg Europe Program. The full program is annexed and also available at the registration site on-line.

Once the event is completed PROGRESS will produce a thematic handbook, Interreg Europe good practices and a policy brief, and all will be available on the project website. As the workshop coincides with the annual European Green Week organised by the European Commission a link will be made during the event between PES and Zero Pollution, the theme of this year’s Green Week.

The official website of the project: http://www.interregeurope.eu/progress/

More information: buni.rtu.lv/interreg-eu-progress