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The objective of the Nature Exchange visit to eastern Slovakia was to provide opportunities for those who are involved in training in Scotland to exchange experience and best practice of nature conservation through the framework of the ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ programme of the European Commission.
Haymaking was happening everywhere we travelled across Transylvania in Romania, from the outskirts of the city of Timisoara to the heart of the Apuseni Mountains, a few days before midsummer in June 2011. Wooden carts pulled by glossy chestnut brown horses trundled along the roads, laden with loose piles of fresh green hay. From first light to dusk, groups of two or three people laboured in the small rectangular fields, using wooden forks and rakes to turn and gather in the hay, tossing it up into conical stacks built around a central wooden support. This might be a sturdy forked branch stuck upright in the soil, a tripod or four-legged frame, or a post with several cross-bars nailed together, the top invariably poking out above the haystack like a short mast.
Nature Exchange 2011 – Large Mammals in Norway – Final Report View this report as PDF. The visit was hosted by Hedmark University College at the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management. Hedmark County in south-east Norway. A joint report by, Colin Bean, Craig Borthwick, Grant Carson, Donald McCuaig, Graham Neville, David Sutherland and John Taylor June 2011
Houses in nearby villages are simpler in style, with wooden or metal doors often the only parts decorated. Roman and Turkish influences can be imagined. On day 1 we stopped in Ciclova Romana and Manuela went to collect sheep’s cheese from behind such a door. It was as if we’ve stepped back in time: green grass transported by horse drawn cart, hens pecking about, a cock crowing and the smell of mown hay and dung. When I went to primary school in the early 60s we passed a field with the last working horse; all farms had tractors by then. We hardly saw farm machinery in this part of Romania. Ten yards after the village of Ciclova Romana ends Ciclova Montana begins. We stayed there in a village house, within walking distance of forests, meadows and the Cheile Nerei National Park. We tried local produce and experienced other aspects of village life, e.g. as we ate our first meal we heard bells from cows being driven home for milking. One day the water pump broke and we brought in water from the well in the garden and used the toilet there (which may have emptied into the river which rushed […]
The group was intrigued to learn that forestry age is measured differently in Bulgaria where the mean age of trees is used rather than the length of time the area has been afforested. This is due to the influence of other European countries where a more holistic approach through continuous forestry methods are adopted. This is unlike Scottish forestry which is still in the infancy of this and mostly managed on a financial /accountancy basis. The oldest tree in the park was a 500 year old beech. The group asked several questions about deer but it was apparent there was no problem with high densities due to a combination of factors, primarily predation by wolves and anthropogenic hunting. One of the rangers stated that there were probably less than one deer per 100 ha. The hunting in the region is managed by local hunting groups and licenses are issued by the Ministry for Food and Agriculture.
On day 1 we stopped in Ciclova Romana and Manuela went to collect sheep’s cheese. It was as if we’ve stepped back in time: green grass transported by horse drawn cart, hens pecking about, a cock crowing and the smell of mown hay and dung. When I went to primary school in the early 60s we passed a field with the last working horse; all farms had tractors by then. We hardly saw farm machinery in this part of Romania. Ten yards after the village of Ciclova Romana ends Ciclova Montana begins. We stayed there in a village house, within walking distance of forests, meadows and the Cheile Nerei-Beusnita National Park. We tried local produce and experienced some rhythms of village life, as we ate our first meal we heard bells from cows being driven home for milking. One day the water pump broke and we brought in water from the well in the garden and used the toilet there which emptied into the river rushing past.
Our introduction to Park Narodowy Ujście Warty (Warta Mouth National Park) was that of a grey polder landscape at early dawn that was more audible than visible. We could hear the distant sounds of geese and, the reason for being there at that hour, cranes. Standing on one of the dikes, which signified the polder landscape, we counted up to 1200 cranes in the coming hours. While the relatively small flocks of cranes flew over, unaware of the fact that they were being recorded…
There is currently considerable interest in re-introducing the European Beaver (Castor fiber) back to Scotland, reflected in the reintroduction trial that is currently taking place in Knapdale Forest in Argyll, and public reaction to the population of beavers on Tayside that have arisen from escapes from private collections. Archnetwork secured funding via the Leonardo da Vinci programme to send six people from Scotland on a fact finding study tour to Bavaria from 16th to 23rd October 2012. The aim of the tour was to develop a fuller understanding of how beavers were managed in Bavaria, and what lessons could then be implemented in Scotland. The Bavarian situation is regarded by many people as being similar to Scotland, with the system of beaver management being something that we might wish to copy. We wished to ascertain if this was indeed the case or if this assumption was misplaced. The six people who went on the trip represented a wide range of interests and skill sets. They were: Victor Clements, a self employed woodland advisor based in Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire; Dr Aylwin Pillai, a lecturer in environmental law at Aberdeen University who has taken a particular interest in European protected species […]
Capercaillie in Vosges. Joint Report The exchange was hosted by Arnaud Hurstel of Groupe Tetras Vosges (GTV) in France. The purpose of the trip was to look at the status of the capercaillie population in the Vosges Mountains and the LIFE project “Forests for Capercaillie in the Vosges”. We visited several capercaillie sites, including Special Protection Areas (Natura 2000) and National Nature Reserves for capercaillie, as well as state and private forests within the Vosges. During these site visits we met many people that were actively involved in capercaillie conservation. The main topics that were discussed were conservation and management measures for capercaillie with regard to forest biodiversity, timber production, recreational activities, tourism and hunting. This report gives a daily account from the participants of each day’s discussions.
During our first trip to the hills around Lefkara, to see ancient olive grows with trees of around 1000 years old or more, it soon became evident that Cyprus, like the UK, is a prosperous country with an aspiring and educated population that no longer want to continue working on the land when they can earn higher salaries in other vocations. Thus traditional farming practices that are no longer economic to maintain will die out and the cultural landscape will change. Whether or not these changes may or may not be of benefit to biodiversity was discussed along with ways in which new farming and land-use methods may help to preserve the current landscape of ancient olive groves over pasture. The labour on these farms today is imported from India and elsewhere, we saw shepherds from the Punjab herding goats in the area we visited. Like Scotland, Cyprus is aiming to increase the percentage of woodland cover from around 18% to 25% but no timescale is set for this. Unlike in Scotland it hopes to do this with predominantly native planting and has a policy of no new non-native planting outside of municipal areas. This will be great […]
Bird Conservation and Habitat Management Written by Pardeep Chand (Biodiversity Projects Officer, North Lanarkshire Council) Poland is a country rich in natural heritage. My initial impressions of Poland when driving from Poznań Airport to Słońsk were of a land dominated by large swathes of agricultural countryside intersected by large areas of woodland. The pockets of woodland and linear belts were impressive; impressive in that it provided significant wildlife corridors for dispersal as well as providing habitat connectivity through agricultural land. The scale of forested land alongside agriculture is greater than that in the UK. Approximately 30% of Poland is afforested, compared to 12% in the UK. Poland is a country of approximately 332,000km with a population of 39 million. It is split into 16 provinces, or Vovoidships, as they are known in Poland. During this trip we visited habitats associated with the Odra River in West Pomerania region, in particular wetland systems. My particular interest lies in ornithology and wetland habitat management. This Nature Exchange, organised by ‘Society For The Coast’, allowed for a detailed insight into nature conservation issues in Poland and visited some key wetland sites not only in Poland but also in Europe. Poland has a […]
An impressive 87% of the land area of Finland is forest, comprising 66% productive (over 20m ha) and 11% old growth (mostly, but not all, protected). Approximately 24% of the forest belongs to the state, while the remainder is privately owned. 60% of the forests are family owned. The reason for this high proportion of family ownership can be traced back to the independence years of Finland. Prior to independence from Russia in 1917, land was largely owned by the nobility. By 1922 the government conducted a land reform in which these large holdings were taken by the government, broken up and sold to tenant farmers and landless labourers. Forests have been passing down the generations ever since, with owners comprising both the farmer/forester and city dwellers. The average forest property is 30ha, but can be as small as 0.5ha. However, in doing so the land was often divided in long strips to ensure the new owners had a roughly even mix of land quality. The result, which survives to this day, is a largely linear arrangement of property boundaries, to the extent that some properties are ‘locked’ in by those properties surrounding it, isolated from access routes, and sometimes […]
This structured study visit to Bulgaria will focus on the management of nature sites, traditional crafts and culture heritage as part of local development. The programme is hosted by the Devetaki Plateau Association and your guide will be Velislava Chilingirova.
The first stage of this was clearing one of the rooms in the building. In doing this we found artefacts from the buildings distant and recent history which ranged from metal working tools to children’s toys.
The Heart of Scotland Forest Partnership are based in Perthshire, Scotland. Here, public, private, community and charity partners are working together to connect woodlands across Highland Perthshire. Members of the partnership were recently given the opportunity to visit Norway on a training course developed by ARCH, hosted by Duncan Halley and NINA (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research) and funded through the Erasmus+ programme.
We are looking for sheep keepers and trainers in Scotland to share their views on vocational training for sustainable shepherding.
Find out about shepherd training in other parts of Europe in the first newsletter of the EU4Shepherds Project.
The aim of this course is to provide people working in Scottish upland land management the opportunity to see and hear how native woodland has been responding to changes in grazing pressure in the part of Scandinavia most environmentally similar to Scotland. Participants will visit a variety of biodiverse, reforested landscapes from exposed coast to mountain top, where climate and geology are very similar to our own, and where multiple land uses such as forestry, hunting and farming, are often practised together.
The EU4 Shepherds project is bringing together shepherd trainers, land managers and rural development specialists to update the options for sharing shepherding skills in the 21st century. The new edition of the newsletter has just been launched and features a series of 9 interviews of shepherds from across Europe.
Sharing the Results – Click here to download Newsletter 5 or visit the EU4Shepherds website. The EU4 Shepherds Project is continuing to bring together training information for sheep keepers and trainers in all of the project countries. The Training Platform with 11 modules is now up and running and you can access all the information via the EU4Shepherds website. Dissemination events have been held in the 7 project countries and all the activities are included in the latest project newsletter. Interested in being part of a European network of sheep keepers, shepherds and trainers? Sign up to receive all the latest news and information at EU4Shepherds ShepherdsNet.
News Update July 2023 The EU4Shepherds Training App is now available to download from the Google Play. As well as accessing the free training on your laptop you can now access the modules via your mobile phone. The app allows you to work through the 11 training modules for sheep keepers and shepherds in English or to the training and issues affecting sheep in the 7 project countries. To learn more about the EU4Shepherds Project please visit the website or download the project brochure. You can keep up to date with all the latest from the project by following the EU4Shepherds Twitter Feed (@eu4shepherds) , the Facebook Group or by joining the shepherds interaction group on Facebook. EU4Shepherds in a KA2 Project part-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
The final newsletter for the EU4Shepherds Project is now available to download here or you can visit the EU4Shepherds website. The newsletter shares information about dissemination workshops in Austria and Romania as well as the final project workshop held in Romania in June 2023. The free training platform is now available via the EU4Shepherds website or you can download the app for free. To learn more about the EU4Shepherds Project please visit the website or download the project brochure. You can keep up to date with all the latest from the project by following the EU4Shepherds Twitter Feed (@eu4shepherds) , the Facebook Group or by joining the shepherds interaction group on Facebook. EU4Shepherds in a KA2 Project part-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.