Bukk National Park (BNPD) organised the third workshop of EcoKarst project on February 27, 2019, in Eger.

The main objective of the workshop was to continue the mutual conversation with the stakeholders in order to set concrete goals into the ‘Action Plan’ and identify locations for the business opportunities in the Bükk Region.

As in the previous workshops, the morning session passed with lectures and project reports, while the second half of the day focused on team work using the “world cafe” method.

Following the opening speech of György Dudás, deputy director, a short ECO KARST movie produced by the Bosnian MANIA film studio was presented. The filming was performed in 7 project pilot areas, featuring natural values of every protected karst area and many pro-biodiversity businesses operating in the area.

Subsequently, András Schmotzer, project manager at BNPD presented the tasks performed so far under the ECO KARST project, talked about selected ecosystem services, and presented the final thematic ecosystem service maps prepared within the project.

Particular emphasis was placed on a detailed description of the tasks ahead of the project, such as the current state of preparation of the Action Plan and further actions targeting pro-biodiversity enterprises (PBB Award and Green Entrepreneurship training).

Béla Kuslits from the Centre for Ecological Research Hungary (MTA OK) reported on the potential of the participatory planning process. Involving people in this process is crucial in many ways, as it is based on the real local knowledge and can be adapted to the needs and experiences of the local stakeholders. Incidentally, the involvement of locals can also be of great service in avoiding conflicts. He specifically addressed the basic principles that underlie successful networks as well as relevant criteria to be applied.

In the second part of the workshop, participants continued to discuss the topics already selected at the previous meetings with our moderators (Theme 1: Tourism, education, guided tours; Theme 2: Processed foods and local food sales; Theme 3: Networking, local bottom up processes). These activities are the ones that are (and can) be multi-actor and most relevant for the business opportunities. On the other hand, the knowledge presented and gathered here can also be considered as one of the most important input information of the Action Plan being prepared. Most topics have the potential for networking and the need to share resources. The management of the Bukk National Park hopes that the ECO KARST project will only be able to bring forward the successful future of the Bükk region with the first step of this process and the involvement of local communities.