Reflections on the Eurosite Annual Meeting 2025: Nature Defends Borders
Harm Schoten
More than 100 people from 20 European countries attended the 36th Eurosite Annual Meeting, in Vilnius, Lithuania, from September 9-11. The theme of the event, which was hosted by Baltic Environmental Forum with the help of the Lithuanian Foundation for Peatland Restoration and Conservation, was “Restoring Nature, Reviving Communities. Eurosite Director Harm Schoten shared his reflections from the meeting, which reminded him of some nature’s less recognized benefits.
One field visit took participants to a beautiful old Lithuanian forest near the border of Belarus. There, Schoten said, time stood still. The group met the woman in the photo above, for whom the forest was home. But the peacefulness was not complete. “The heavenly silence was regularly interrupted by loud explosions,” said Schoten. The explosions were the result of nearby NATO exercises. The proximity of the defense activity to the stillness of the forest struck him. “It is clear that both are necessary to keep our world, and the world of this remarkable woman, living in the forest, healthy and safe.”
In his opening speech at the conference, Lithuanian’s Environment Minister Povilas Poderskis announced that Lithuania will be seeking strategies to use land as a form of natural defense. Nature restoration and rewetting contribute significantly to the security of Europe. Like Lithuania, several European Member States are actively exploring bog restoration as a multipurpose measure to defend their borders and fight climate change. Such projects highlight yet another service that resilient landscapes provide to humanity.
“Nature also defends the borders of human health,” said Schoten. To strengthen nature and climate, he said we need a new approach on all fronts: the conservation and restoration of peatlands, grasslands, wetlands, forests and cities is essential for humanity. During the Annual Meeting three points emerged:
First, Europe needs new types of collaboration. “We must transcend our community boundaries. Citizens, farmers, land managers, companies and governments must engage in dialogue and be open to learning from each other’s insights,” said Schoten. He pointed to the examples including the building of the European Peatlands Initiative, a strong long-term European alliance for peatland action and the peer-to-peer learning approach where farmers and conservationists meet together.
Second, Europe must adapt new conservation technologies. “We are entering a decade of dramatic tech acceleration, and conservationists and landowners must embrace AI and new technology and use it wisely in their daily practice,” said Schoten. Examples of this include the growing use of remote sensing data and the development of a Single Access Point to high-troughput biodiversity monitoring tools, biodiversity data, and biodiversity analyses for better conservation across Europe.
Finally, Europe should develop new mechanisms of green finance. “The public purse is not big enough to pay for it all. Developing new ways of conservation finance by which we can access private sector financing is a crucial necessity,” said Schoten. A few projects that illustrate this type of innovation include nature credits for wetlands, carbon farming and paludiculture, where voluntary markets that are still in their infancy are being stimulated by pilots, robust frameworks and new policies.
“It is often said that policy follows reality. Eurosite is a network of people with their feet firmly on the ground,” said Schoten. “Our members and partners are taking the lead in innovations, and putting lessons learned into practice. We invite politicians, policymakers and decision-makers to extend these successful examples with stimulant policies.”
