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Rural inspiration awards 2021: Slovenia once again among the finalists

The Slovenian project, aiming to restore forests damaged by natural disasters and involving forest owners and Slovenia Forest Service as the main beneficiaries of the funds, was named as one of the 20 finalists out of 125 projects submitted for the European competition Rural Inspiration Awards 2021.
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The competition is divided into five categories and the winners of each category will be announced on 25 March 2021. The winner of the Popular Vote category will be selected by all of us – the European public.

Click the link to cast your vote. Choose between 20 shortlisted projects.

The third consecutive competition since 2019 is organised by the European Commission, together with the European Network for Rural Development (ENDR) and national rural networks. This year’s themes of the Rural Inspiration Awards 2021 revolve around the future, in the light of drafting the new common agricultural policy and the long-term vision for rural areas.

The Slovenian National Rural Network submitted eight entries, which is the highest possible number of entries for each country. The project of the Slovenia Forest Service, entitled "Restoring forests damaged by natural disasters and improving the viability of forests", fell into the Green Futures category.

The project of the Slovenia forest service: Restoring forests damaged by natural disasters and improving the viability of forests

This pan-Slovenian project is designed to eliminate the consequences of natural disasters that have affected forests in the past six years. The project is special due to the close-to-nature and sustainable design of a wide range of measures to restore damaged forests, which take into account the doctrine of the Slovenian forestry school and its key principles of adapting multifunctional forest management to climate change and its effects. The participation of a broad range of stakeholders in the forestry-wood chain is crucial both in planning and implementing measures. The project was designed to be able to regularly adapt to the situation in forests and forestry and to the effects of natural disasters. It introduced several new expert solutions for the restoration and maintenance of forests, which are used to adapt forests to climate change and will continue to be used in the future.

Discover more about the project – Restoring forests damaged by natural disasters and improving the viability of forests

The Slovenian National Rural Network submitted entries in the following categories:

Green Futures:

  • Project: Production of lettuce and herbs in a wood biomass-heated nursery throughout the year
  • Project: Fruit growers for pollinators and pollinators for fruit growers
  • Project: Restoring forests damaged by natural disasters and improving the viability of forests

Resilient Futures:

  • Project: Majnika herb garden and farm
  • Project: Hay meat and milk,
  • Project: How to obtain quality lamb by investing in a facility on a farm (for slaughtering and processing)

Digital Futures:

  • Project: Optimising the use of fertilisers on surfaces with unmanned aerial vehicles OPTIDRON

Socially Inclusive Futures

  • Project: Smart villages of tomorrow

Popular Vote:

  • Candidates in the category are all finalists of the competition.The one who receives the most online votes will become the winner in this category.

The winners of the competition will be announced on 25 March 2021

The jury of the competition organised by the European Commission will select the winners of the four categories, taking into account the following criteria:

  • direct benefits (specific economic, environmental and social benefits),
  • networking benefits,
  • synergy or contribution to other EU policies, and
  • transferability potential.

Participate in the online voting that will take place in the following days and vote for your favourite project.

The winners of each category will be announced on Thursday, 25 March 2021, during a virtual ceremony organised as part of the Rural Vision Week. The award ceremony will start at 15:00. Apart from the winners of each category, the winner of the Popular Vote, who received the highest number of online votes, will also be announced. The ceremony will be live-streamed on the ENRD Youtube channel.

The 2020 competition attracted a lot of attention of the Slovenian public as two Slovenian entries were shortlisted for the final round: Kokol House of Wine and Černelič Biodynamic Farm. The latter was named the winner in the Popular vote category (Rural Inspiration Awards 2020) by the European public vote.

Discover more about the competition Rural Inspiration Awards 2021