04 Aug 2020
With the endeavour to deliver the Prespa region’s first transboundary virtual summer school for students from the three countries sharing the Prespa lakes having come to an end, we cannot help being delighted with the results and grateful for the co-operative spirit in which this summer school on wetland management and monitoring was organised and delivered. The main objective for the summer school has been to share and explore ways in which to approach wetland management issues, using activities carried out under the Society for the Protection of Prespa’s (SPP) LIFE Prespa Waterbirds project at Lesser Prespa Lake in Greece as a case study, as well as transboundary experience from the work carried out by the PrespaNet environmental NGO network in the “Strengthening NGO-led Collaboration in the Transboundary Prespa Basin” project. The summer school was attended by 14 young scientists from a range of environmental fields, such as forestry, biology and ecology amongst others, studying at universities in Greece, Albania and North Macedonia.
The whole experience – new for so many of us – only serves to underline the importance of the interdisciplinary approach in wetland management and monitoring issues, as well as the irreplaceable value of strong transboundary collaboration, and it has taught us that a willingness to learn combined with new technologies can happily overcome our current difficulties, encouraging a new generation in tackling the appropriate conservation and restoration practices for wetlands.
