On Friday, February 2nd 2024, the World Wetlands Day "Wetlands and Human Wellbeing" was celebrated at the Škocjanski zatok Nature Reserve as part of the POSEIDONE project.
DOPPS, in cooperation with CRS Koper, hosted at the Škocjanski zatok Nature Reserve the second project partners' meeting and the second steering committee of the POSEIDONE project (Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia Programme 2021-2027). The event ended with a guided tour of the area with a focus on the activities carried out during the pilot action. The representatives of the Italian and Slovenian partners were able to see the first results of the deepening of the secondary channels and arrangement of habitats in the brackish lagoon of the Škocjanski zatok Nature Reserve. The main objective of these interventions is to reduce the impact of climate change on wetlands and, consequently, the threats posed by climate change to protected habitats and species in Val Stagnon.
Using the Škocjanski zatok Nature Reserve as an example, the importance of these increasingly threatened ecosystems was also explained to the pupils of the Elvira Vatovec Prade Primary School. Under the guidance of their mentor Ksenia Pfeifer, an art teacher, the pupils created graphic works using the blank print technique. The young artists chose to immortalise some representatives of the wetland avifauna, species that are increasingly rare and threatened by human activities. These works of art, small testimonies to the beauty that the natural world offers, alert us to the subtle balance that can also be threatened by climate change.
The works created during the event are on display on the first floor of the Val Stagnon Nature Reserve visitor centre.
The event was organised in order to emphasise the important connection between wetlands and humans and the importance of joint efforts that through projects such as POSEIDONE can contribute to the protection of these precious ecosystems, preserving them for future generations.
