The second face-to-face meeting of the Erasmus + project TranSuMan - Advanced training on sustainable management of pastoral systems, was held on December 1st and 2nd, 2022, in Karditsa (Greece)

The consortium is formed by the University of Camerino (Italy), as coordinator, as well as three Partners: Catholic University of Valencia (Spain), University of Thessaly (Greece), and Babes Bolyai University (Romania).

This meeting was dedicated to the presentation of the draft “Sustainable Grassland Management Teaching Toolkit” and testing the final version of the Methodological guidelines on participatory grassland management and discussion on the Teaching toolkit with the local Green Team.

The event was held at the Department of Forestry, Wood Sciences and Design of the University of Thessaly, in Karditsa. As on previous occasions, the activities were attended by professors and researchers from the participating universities, students from the University of Thessaly and the Green team, composed by stakeholders from the area.

The first day included meetings of the different committees of the project, keynote presentations, methodological testing Guidelines, and teaching toolkit. In the final part, moderated by the UTH professors, the discussion and final conclusions were worked on.

The topics covered were varied: Introduction to Concept mapping as an educational tool; Biotics features grasslands, detailing the study methodology; Factors affecting the sustainable use of Grasslands; History and evolution of sustainable Grasslands; Management of Sustainable Grasslands; Ecosystems and economic services of Mountain Grassland; Guidelines for stakeholders, but also Knowledge transfers on sustainable grassland management.

As a practical part, Concept Mapping exercises were carried out with the Local Green Team.

The second day was dedicated to fieldwork visits. It included an on-field evaluation of “guiding lines for sustainable management of mountain Grassland”. The objective was to know face-to-face economic activities related to the sustainable use of mountain Grasslands.

Two facilities in the region (East Agrafa Mt.) were visited: A traditional cheese factory with analysis of the facilities and final meeting with the participation of owners, students and researchers,and also a sustainable meat processing facility, recently founded by entrepreneurs in defense of local producers.

The next face-to-face meeting will be held in Camerino, in May 2023.