In early February the consortium partners gathered in Ghent for the kick-off meeting of LEGENDARY.
Forty partners discussed the different work packages and enjoyed the physical discussions.
As part of the LEGENDARY kick-off, a field trip ‘Ecosystem services in practice’ was organised near Ghent. We visited UGent’s regional field experiment ‘Herb-rich grasslands enriched with different mixtures of perennial legumes’ which is part of the LEGENDARY project. We were then welcomed by the owner/farmer of the Smissenbroek estate for a visit to the fields.
There we were also introduced to the work of ‘Boerennatuur Vlaanderen’, an association of farmers working towards a biodiverse, climate-resilient and economically strong agricultural sector in Flanders and to the ‘Rodeland project’, a landscape project in which governments, nature and agricultural organisations and research institutes around Ghent work together to strengthen and further develop the landscape.