Connecting work in the Pilot Region 1 Bavarian Forest-Mühlviertel-Šumava (DE/AT/CZ) has started. Melanie Kreutz, Angelika Beck and Martin Kuba from BUND Department Green Belt (LP) visited local groups of BUND Bavaria (in 1. and 8. August 2018) to introduce the project and to discuss useful measures to be taken on the German side of the Pilot Region. There are various interesting and valuable protected areas like spruce bog forests or peatland right next to the border as it was seen during a field trip. In some cases the aim of transnational ecological connectivity can be reached comparatively easy. For this the integration of local expertise into the D2C project is both inevitable and very profitable for the upcoming work to be done. In September all Project Partners from Pilot Region 1 will have a joint meeting to further push activities.