Tripartite Symposium Voeren

Tripartite – This is the name given to a network of authorities for land consolidation and rural development in Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Germany (North-Rhine Westphalia) and the Netherlands. The project region of the Three Countries Park and, in its centre, the Flemish Voeren region forms a spatial intersection. It therefore seemed obvious to have the 4th Tripartite symposium held here, especially since the special position of the Voeren region as a Flemish island surrounded by Wallonian and Dutch territory underlines particular challenges of cooperation.

The municipality of Voeren, together with the Regionaal Landschap Haspengouw en Voeren, has long been committed not only to cross-border cooperation, but also to a joint approach on agriculture and forestry, water management, tourism and nature conservation. Together they launched a landscape charter for the region of Voeren, which was presented at the symposium.

What was interesting on this day was the change of perspective. It was not the experts explaining to the farmers how they should manage the land, but the farmers explaining to the participants during a field walk how they manage with organic farming, erosion protection and local products.
Symposium participants then discussed how such approaches could be supported with various instruments of land consolidation, rural development and with agri-environmental measures.
The Three Countries Park generated ideas for the workshop on cross-border cooperation, where one of the issues discussed was the possibility of a cross-border landscape fund.