The third seminar of the CPES project ended on December 6th, 2018, after 2 days of meetings and active thinking to begin 2019 on the best tracks. Many partners had the opportunity to present their progress and discuss it with local stakeholders from the Springs of La Vigne and the Tremblay-Omonville catchment, who were hosting this meeting.
The team from the two Normandy catchments invited partners and local stakeholders to a first morning of joint discussions within the walls of the Departemental Council of Eure, which was followed by thematic workshops in small groups of partners.
Each of the meetings is also an opportunity to bring together the local stakeholders and enable them to understand the studies for implementing Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) at the Interreg CPES project scale. The traditional welcome words were pronouced by Gérard Chéron, Vice-President of the Departmental Council in charge of water and sanitation, natural resources protection and energy transition. These words were followed by talks from Dave Cooper from the University of Chichester, the Lead partner of CPES, and Sara Hernandez, coordinator of the two case-studies in Normandy.
The partners then presented details of the six case-studies from a socio-economic perspective and the approaches to PES design in the specific socio-economic contexts of each site. The end of 2018 marks the completion of a first stage of the project to contextualize not only the environmental state and the water resource, but also the socio-economic system including the stakeholders that interact with and benefit from water ecosystem services. It was in these contexts that the presentations were given and they highlighted the working methods used at each site including the financing mechanisms to encourage the practice change and improvement of the water quality.
During the afternoon, the partners split into two groups to participate in workshops on the "Economic assessment of PES and financial/market opportunities" led by Sara Hernandez and the "Impact assessment and PES effectiveness for the quality of the resource" led by Marine Gratecap. The last thematic workshop of the day brought together all the partners on the central theme of the project "Toolbox design: from content to users" led by Laurence Couldrick and Will Roberts.
The next day started with a steering committee meeting, which was necessary to track progress and follow-up on the different stages of the project. After lunch, the partners went to visit the Springs of la Vigne and its wider watchment where they met with farmers who work with Eau de Paris: Béatrice Huet and Vincent Bonte, also President of the Water Syndicate Verneuil-Est, and Pauline Levitre, agronomy advisor at the Chamber of Agriculture of Eure-et-Loir.
A visit to the territory of the Tremblay-Omonville catchment couldn't be organised, so the Water Union of Roumois and the Plateau de Neubourg broadcast a vido on the morning of Wednesday 5th, which they made in partnership with the University of Rouen. This excellent communication tool enabled us to listen in a lively way to the testimonies of farmers from the catchment when questioned about their feelings about the financial supports towards the improvement of the water resource.
We thank all the participants and special thanks are dedicated to Sara Hernandez, Fanny Claise, Marine Gratecap and Camille Brindel for their involvement in the success of this event!
All pictures of the meeting can be seen on the CPES project Facebook page.