As part of the BID-REX project, Marche Region has organised a series of meetings with small groups of stakeholders. The meetings, held between March and July, provided an opportunity to share the main objectives of the BID-REX project as well as to get feedback from regional stakeholders to start drafting the Action Plan.
The main objective of BID-REX in Marche Region is to make the Regional Ecological Network (ReM) operational within five pilot areas. These meetings explored the current state of the ReM within the spatial planning tools, sector plans and area agreements. As part of this objective, biodiversity information will be shared to support users of such data during planning activities.
Workshop participants considered the problems faced by public administrations and Natura 2000 managing bodies, as well as exchanging good management practices and assessing the pros and cons of the ReM.
New operational guidelines were presented for the implementation of the ReM in various ecosystems. The ongoing participatory modality aims to reconcile the needs of decision makers with biodiversity requirements, and extend the use of existing environmental data. The process is highlighting some weaknesses in current databases, where software needs upgrading for example. However, it also highlights the future potential of databases, for example where data can be connected.
Lastly, the stakeholder meetings facilitated the involvement of some new municipalities (Porto Sant'Elpidio) and they triggered a participatory process for the realisation of ReM at a local level.
