The CLIMANATRES project kick-off meeting successfully held in Vácrátót, Hungary

The kick-off event for the CLIMANATRES project took place on July 21st, 2025, in the picturesque National Botanical Garden in town of Vácrátót, Hungary. The event gathered around 50 participants, including representatives from all project partners involved in this ambitious initiative as well as from associated strategic partners. Besides the various partners, the event was also advertised for the potential beneficiaries beyond the project partnership and thus we could welcome representative of the EU Strategy of Danube Region (EUSDR), that of a fellow Danube Interreg project (Danube-ADAPT).

The event began with a welcome  spech of László Zsolt Garamszegi, director general of Institute of ecological resarch and a comprehensive presentation of the CLIMANATRES project's objectives and activities held by Imelda Somodi, project manager. Gusztáv Csomor, representative of the DRP Managing Authority, presented the Danube Interreg Programme that set the context of following presentations on the specific project, CLIMANATRES.

As the project aims to deliver decision support elements for the implementation of the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) also, a significant part of the kick-off meeting was an opportunity for introduction to the NRR and other EU-level reporting on restoration planning. As an evidence of the relevance of the project to national nature conservation actors, the talk was delivered by a delegate from one of the associated strategic partners, the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, Örs Marczin.

In the second part part of the kick-off meeting, the focus shifted to the detailes of the CLIMANATRES project. The  project manager Imelda Somodi, presented principles of  climate change impact modeling on vegetation, the scientific core of the project followed by the perspectives of partners and associated strategic partners on how expected outcomes can support climate-smart restoration planning in their institutions: Ms Vida Posevic Vukelić from Ministry  of Economy and Sustainable  Development -  Institute for Environment and Nature from Croatia presented How vegetation modeling outputs can support national and broad scale restoration planning –expected project benefits from the perspective of a ministry partner, Réka Aszalós from 10 million tree NGO from Hungary present Restoration planning with the help of vegetation modeling outputs – perspective by the civil sector.  

The introduction of project elements was continued with presentations on pilot actions: one for the Sava corridor, one for the Danube corridor. Zoran Galić from Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment, Alen Kis and Klára Szabados from Institute for Nature Conservation of Vojvodina Province from Serbia presented “Application of impact modelling at the local scale – pilot  actions at the Danube corridor“. Andraž Čarni from Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Miha Varga from Slovenian Forest Service presented “Application of impact modelling at the local scale – pilot   actions at the Sava corridor“.

As a closure of the day, all participants of the kick-off meeting were welcomed on a Botanic Garden Tour showcasing the botanical and landscape beauties of the venue also hosting the research institute mainly involved in the project from the lead partner side.

The official program of the kick-off still continued on the next day for project partners, when the steering committe meeting was held, including the setup of the steering committee itself and reporting on the progress on each partner’s side.

The kick-off event marked a significant milestone in the CLIMANATRES project, setting the tone for collaborative efforts to promote the Climate-proofing ecological restoration plans along the Danube Region.