Award winning rural cooperation projects from LEADER

Strong interest in the cooperation awards helped confirm audience demand for a greater understanding of how bottom-up approaches to community-led cooperation actions can result in LEADER achievements, such as developing rural tourism or local food initiatives. A total of 32 projects were submitted, featuring 190 partners and organisations. The jury evaluated the projects' quality, impact, added value, geographical coverage, sustainability and transnational impact.

Jury Award winners

Cooperation between six LAGs promoting international tourism for rural Estonia, Finland, Italy and Spain won first prize in the awards. The 5Star Nature project was implemented in areas hosting important natural resources such as wildlife, landscapes and culture. Networking was used to identify good practices in nature tourism and train entrepreneurs. Skills were boosted in the LAG areas by training events and other LEADER support invested in common business branding and benchmarking visits to compare local approaches. UNESCO Geoparks are expected to be an ongoing new shared interest for the LAG areas involved in the 2023-2027 period.

Second prize also went to a tourism action supported by LEADER cooperation. Local communities from Belgium, Romania and the United Kingdom were involved in the Flourishing Destinations project’s promotion of innovative regenerative tourism. Participating LAGs cooperated to use their territory's traditional craft skills and food products to build attractive tourism offers for visitors from overseas and domestically. Experimental aspects saw local communities test novel ideas like farmers developing a picnic spot at their farm where they could regularly join visitors to share stories about their region and farm. Exploring silence was another new visitor experience provided by LEADER’s Flourishing Destinations project.

The Boergondische Buren project won third prize for its impact on cross-border product development and agro-tourism between Belgium and the Netherlands. The collaboration objective here was to celebrate shared Burgundian heritage, the agricultural roots of cross-border farmers and their related local products. Outcomes led to a database of local products, which provides a useful rural development tool that consumers and hospitality companies can use to uncover and source local goods. LEADER’s involvement helped to open new sales markets and strengthened resilience for regional agrarian culture by raising awareness of regional farm products.

People’s Choice Award

Around 4 100 votes from across Europe decided that the People’s Choice Prize would go to Spain’s Tierra Minera project. This is an interregional cooperation between LAGs operating in six of Spain’s mining regions. The cooperation aims relied on digitalisation and centred around conserving mining heritage in these LAG regions. LEADER’s assistance was used to prepare virtual guides applying augmented reality technology. Sustainable tourism is integral to the Tierra Minera project’s long-term goals and these now include transnational cooperation (TNC) with French and German mining museums.

TNC training supported by the EU CAP Network

In addition to the awards ceremony, there were several parallel workshops on the second day of the ELARD’s European LEADER Congress 2024. LEADER experts from the EU CAP Network delivered one of the workshops focusing on the practical aspects and steps needed when developing transnational cooperation projects.

The EU CAP Network aimed to make the sessions participative and interactive, really getting people thinking about TNC. Participants were split into groups and received random stacks relating to the practical steps within the key stages of TNC (getting ready for TNC, preparing a TNC project, implementation of a TNC project, evaluation and communication relating to TNC).

The groups were asked to discuss and agree on how to order the cards, which key stage they belong to, and add further steps and remarks based on their TNC experiences. The workshop encouraged discussion and networking among the participants, who added further elements about LEADER transnational cooperation. The groups identified additional factors such as:

Are you a LAG interested in horticulture and alternatives to peat substrates? If so, you could join the new Hort2thefuture Horizon Europe project, which will soon start gathering diverse local perspectives on the economic, social, informational and regulatory barriers to adopting new low-impact horticultural practices.

LAGs are invited to participate. The emphasis will be on reducing extraction pressures in peat reserves to promote soil-friendly practices in horticulture by developing sustainable alternatives to traditional growing media.

You can provide insights to the Hort2thefuture project team by completing this short research survey.