Lessons Learnt
Participant's Remarks and Comments
When we return home first we’ll organize a lunch meeting for all interested colleagues, with the most interesting information sheets and things we learned during the visit. In addition we will ask these colleagues to give their feedback at a business plan for ‘marketing carbon storage in soil/vegetation’. (Henk Siebel, Natuurmonumenten)
I learned of the huge importance of elaborate land use in agriculture as well as employing the soil and the plants growing on it as carbon stores. Therefore farming and land conservation play important roles in fighting climate change. Furthermore it was interesting to see the internal measures and different strategies employed by the National Trust, the RSPB, Natuurmonumenten and Conservatoire du littoral to reduce the organisations’ carbon footprints (biomass heating, renewable energy, new management software and management tools (e.g. internal certification of sites as it is done in France), potential reduction of paper consumption). (Cord-Dieter Wiesenthal, NABU)
Other lessons:
- The philosophy and focus of all the organisations involved was similar – reducing the organisational carbon footprint is essential
- Different organisations had different strategies
- Linking carbon dioxide output and land management is a priority for allIt is very useful to have tangible examples of how to live and what steps to take to reduce carbon footprints.
The project started in 2010 and was finished in 2012.