Lisbon has hosted this week the Natural Heritage Mission meeting of Interreg Euro-MED, a gathering that brought together projects, experts and institutional representatives from across the Mediterranean region to advance cooperation and the development of innovative solutions for the protection of natural heritage. Among the participating projects is Germ of Life, which continues to strengthen its involvement within this Euro-Mediterranean community.
The meeting, held at the Instituto Superior de Gestão (ISG), concludes today after three days of working sessions focused on coordination between projects, the exchange of results and the planning of new awareness-raising and knowledge transfer actions.
One of the highlights of the meeting was the presentation and launch of the #SolveTheChallenge 2026 campaign, an initiative promoted within the framework of the Natural Heritage Mission to increase awareness and participation around the environmental and climate challenges affecting the Mediterranean. The campaign aims to give visibility to projects and initiatives that promote sustainable solutions and encourage greater involvement from citizens, organisations and territories.
The campaign was presented alongside participants’ attendance at the European Maritime Day in My Country event, reinforcing the international and collaborative dimension of this communication initiative.
The programme was opened by Caterina Praticò, from CoNISMa, and Marilena Mochianaki Karampatzaki, from the Region of Crete, who introduced the working agenda of the Natural Heritage Mission Community of Practice.
The institutional opening also included a welcome speech by Teresa Damásio, member of the Board of the Instituto Superior de Gestão (ISG), the host organisation of the meeting, as well as speeches by Francesca Marcato and Christoph Maier, representatives of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme Joint Secretariat.
Throughout the different sessions held in Lisbon, participants addressed issues related to the transfer of results between projects, collaborative work in thematic clusters, communication and awareness-raising strategies, as well as policy advocacy and the involvement of external stakeholders.
