An update from the seventh Water Co-Governance meeting
Day 1 of the meeting started with a site visit to Gunnebo house, an 18th century stately home and its surrounding landscape, which included meadows, woodlands and a walk to lake Stensjön. Followed by a guided tour of Kvarnbyn, one of Sweden’s most important industrial places where paper mills and the textile industry dominated.
Watch a video below which summarises the site visit:
The day ended with a boat tour from Liseberg to Leijontrappan, exploring the waterways around Gothenburg.
Day 2 was a mix of updates and feedback on progress so far. Learning about future ambitions for the project and what key results are the most important to the pilot projects, identifying common opportunities and challenges within the project.
Today we are with our #watercog partners evaluating our pilot projects and learning from the different experiences in the various countries involved @INTERREGTweets @NorthSeaRegion @CaBAtweets pic.twitter.com/Ro7NT89cDD
— The Rivers Trust (@theriverstrust) April 10, 2019
The afternoon included updates from pilots and their planned activities and outcomes. Highlights included the Upper Wharfe Pilot in the UK connecting flood-affected communities downstream with communities and landowners upstream, the growth of the River Lark Catchment Partnership in the UK, gaining charitable status and delivery of river fly training to community volunteers, upscaling community involvement in their local watercourse. Denmark updated on how they were looking to develop more wetlands in June 2019, as a result of the success made with establishing the catchment officer roles and their previous wetland project.
The day was closed with entertainment from Bee Together – an artistic action group in Sweden, who are working with schools and communities to demonstrate the issues with water through art and music. The video below includes the music developed by this group.
Day 3 involved a catch up about deliverables and discussions about ensuring we successfully meet our project objects.
The next meeting is planned for the Autumn in the Yorkshire Dales, UK, hosted by the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.