"LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors": Meeting of the Greek partners in Kastraki of Kalambaka
The first official meeting of the "LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors" Greek partners took place in Kastraki of Kalambaka. The two-day meeting on November 7th and 8th 2022 aimed to plan the next actions of the project, to deal with some raising issues of project implementation, but also for team building and further cooperation motivation between the partners. At the meeting, the project's Logistics Committee (Bear Stewardship Committee) was established, within the framework of Action C1.
The "LIFE Bear-Smart Corridors" project is an international collaboration between Netherlands, Italy and Greece, with the aim of strengthening the populations of the iconic brown bear in Central Italy and Greece, by preserving and ensuring the functionality of important bear corridors, the so-called “corridors of coexistence”.
Through these “corridors of coexistence”, local communities will learn to co-exist with the iconic brown bear. The project will adopt the Bear Smart Community model, which encourages collaboration between local communities, businesses and individuals to minimize conflict between bear and human activities.
Recent genetic research in Greece has indicated two such corridors, connecting the bear population from Trikala to Amyntaio and from there even further north. Accordingly, the two areas of the project were defined, in the Municipality of Amyntaio and in the Municipalities of Trikkaia and Meteora, where the Bear Smart Communities will be developed.
On the Greek side, the environmental organizations "Callisto" and "Arcturos", the Trikala Development Agency KENAKAP S.A., the Municipality of Amyntaio & the University of Thessaly participate in the project. The coordinating beneficiary of the project is the environmental organization Rewilding Europe, while on the Italian side, six partners from the Central Italy region participate (two environmental organizations, two National and two Regional Parks).
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