What was learned?
Venue
Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland 14-15 March 2007
Review
The closing stage of the LEADER+ Peatland Project gave a chance for partners to share their experiences of the work when they gathered in Ireland for the project's last international event. Through presentations, workshop sessions, field trips and informal discussions, peatland workers from Finland, France, Ireland and Scotland continued the process of networking which had been a key part of the project from the beginning.
Visits to Lough Boora Parklands and the Corlea Interpretive Centre (built around Europe's finest Bronze Age bogland trackway) gave a perspective on peatlands from the distant past to the present day. Through workshops held in the Offaly LEADER+ offices in Tullamore, partners compared notes and ideas. The aim of these workshops was both to take stock partners' aims, aspirations and achievements and to see what could be learned from the work.
Transnational Hopes
Thinking back to the start of the project, partners' hopes for the transnational project were:
- To develop new ideas
- Make new contacts and boost co-operation
- Learn from other LAGs in the Leader+ network and from other organisations
- Get specific advice on construction methods for peatland infrastructure
- Benefit from personal development and training through international visits
- Gain more money for peatland work in own country, through extra leverage given by offer of LEADER+ grant
- Increase ecological knowledge to benefit work in own area (including the ecological effects of particular management techniques)
To see how the reality of the project compared with these hopes and to learn about ideas for the future, look at:
- What went well?
- What was less good?
- Things partners wanted to know more about
- What could be improved in future? - Looking Ahead 1
- Outcomes and Achievements - Looking Ahead 2
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