Verde e Moldova (VeM) is a leading environmental NGO in Moldova dedicated to strengthening communities, restoring nature, and supporting sustainable development. Working at the intersection of environmental protection, education, policy support, and socio-economic innovation, VeM delivers practical solutions that connect people with nature and empower local actors to become drivers of change.

With active projects in climate resilience, circular economy, nature restoration, education, and sustainable tourism, Verde e Moldova has become a trusted partner for communities, municipalities, schools, protected area managers, and international networks. Its work spans local action and cross-border cooperation, particularly in ecologically valuable regions such as the Danube Delta and Lower Prut wetlands.

We spoke with the VeM team about how they engage communities, integrate socio-economic development with conservation, respond to policy challenges, and support public institutions.

Engaging Communities Through Practical Action and Education

EUROPARC: You mentioned promoting environmental education in both urban and rural communities. What approaches have proven most effective?

Verde e Moldova: We place people at the centre of environmental action. Across climate resilience, circular economy, nature restoration, and culture-based tourism, we combine participatory planning with visible results that build trust and motivation.

One effective approach is co-creation with communities. In projects such as Plastic Waste in the Circular Economy and Danube Delta Rewilding, local residents helped design eco-tourism opportunities linked to wetland restoration. Together, we installed over 40 mesh collection containers and launched the national #GiveUpPLASTIC campaign, encouraging citizens to adopt circular-economy habits.

Another key area is education and youth engagement. We blend formal, non-formal, and digital learning through teacher toolkits, outdoor activities, and student projects. These resources are already used in schools across Moldova and Europe, helping educators integrate nature-based solutions into curricula.

We also focus on strengthening local authorities and Protected Area managers by facilitating dialogue, planning, and capacity building. This includes consultations with farmers, municipalities, and media, and cross-border coordination between Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine.

Supporting small businesses and local entrepreneurs is another priority. We help develop tourism products rooted in culture and nature, encourage circular practices, and build visitor experiences that generate local income.

Finally, through public communication and social mobilisation, we use storytelling, social media, festivals, and biodiversity days to make sustainability visible and meaningful for communities.

When Nature Restoration Meets Local Development

EUROPARC: Can you share an example where environmental protection and socio-economic development came together successfully?

Verde e Moldova: In the Danube Delta and Lower Prut region, we integrated large-scale ecological restoration with sustainable community development through a cross-border rewilding programme supported by Rewilding Europe.

Together with partners in Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine, we restored degraded wetlands by improving hydrological flows and habitats for migratory birds and aquatic species. Scientific assessments and stakeholder consultations ensured that both ecological data and local knowledge guided decisions.

At the same time, we worked directly with communities to create tangible benefits. Local guides, guesthouses, and youth groups developed birdwatching routes, interpretive materials, and small tourism services. Training in sustainable tourism and circular practices helped residents build new livelihoods connected to restored landscapes.

This created a positive cycle: healthier wetlands attracted visitors and income, while stronger community engagement reinforced long-term stewardship of natural heritage.

Responding to Policy and Regulatory Change

EUROPARC: What policy challenge has been most significant recently, and how has VeM responded?

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Verde e Moldova: Moldova’s rapid alignment with EU environmental legislation has been a major challenge, especially in waste management, circular economy, and nature-based solutions. New regulations created uncertainty for municipalities, schools, and community groups that lacked technical guidance.

VeM acted as a bridge between policy and practice. Through the Plastic Waste in the Circular Economy project, we helped municipalities interpret regulations, develop action plans, pilot collection systems, and apply extended producer responsibility concepts.

In education, our work under NBS EduWORLD and UNESCO programmes translated policy into teacher toolkits and classroom pilots. In biodiversity and Protected Areas, we supported authorities in aligning local strategies with EU restoration and governance standards.

 Turning Technical Support into Real Impact

EUROPARC: What types of technical assistance are most in demand, and how do you ensure real impact?

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Verde e Moldova: Local authorities increasingly request practical tools for implementing circular economy and waste regulations. We co-develop local action plans, train municipal staff, and introduce pilot solutions such as mesh collection points, awareness campaigns, and youth-led initiatives.

These pilots help communities understand how regulations work in real life. Over time, municipalities integrate circular principles into budgets and school programs, while residents adopt new recycling habits and local initiatives.

Our approach combines coaching, monitoring, and long-term partnerships to ensure sustainable results beyond individual projects.

Looking Ahead with EUROPARC

Joining the EUROPARC Federation marks an important milestone for Verde e Moldova. It strengthens international cooperation, enhances knowledge exchange in Protected Area management, and reinforces the organisation’s mission to connect people, nature, and sustainable development.

Together with EUROPARC members across Europe, VeM will continue building resilient communities, restoring ecosystems, and shaping a greener future for Moldova and the wider region.

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From 5-7 December 2025, Youth Council member Marla Schulz had the opportunity to take part in the second session of the Young Citizens Assembly on Pollinators in Brussels, representing EUROPARC and the expertise and importance of Protected Areas in pollinator conservation.

An inspiring and truly European experience that showed how democracy, youth participation and biodiversity protection can come together.

The assembly was initiated by the European Commission in response to the dramatic decline of pollinators across Europe. Wild bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects are disappearing at alarming rates, driven by factors such as intensive agriculture, pesticide use, habitat loss and climate change. This decline threatens biodiversity, food security and healthy ecosystems and it clearly requires action.

To bring young voices into this debate, the European Commission launched this Citizens’ Assembly. 100 young people from across Europe were selected through a random, postcode-based process to ensure diversity in geography, education and social background. The result is a group that truly reflects the diversity of Europe’s youth from students and apprentices to young professionals.

The assembly takes place partly through online meetings but also on three weekends on site in Brussels (2025-2026). During the first session (September 2025), participants received expert input and identified key problem areas around pollinator decline. They agreed on four main thematic fields that now structure the whole process:

1. Transforming land use and protecting habitats
2. Fostering a cultural shift and changing behaviours
3. Financing biodiversity
4. Policy implementation and accountability

The second session (December 2025) focused on exchanges with stakeholders. Marla Schulz was invited to the second session as a stakeholder and expert, representing the EUROPARC Federation Youth Council and the perspective of Europe’s Protected Areas. She contributed her experiences and insights from national parks, biosphere reserves and other large protected landscapes, where pollinator protection is already being put into practice.

In the morning of the first day the young citizens prepared their questions based on the four thematic fields. In the afternoon, the ten invited stakeholders joined in and talked and exchanged ideas in small discussion groups with three to four stakeholders and around 20 young citizens. In Marla’s case, she took part in a discussion together with Noa Simon (BeeLife) and Anne Crespin (Pro Silva).

They discussed with the young citizens how Protected Areas, agriculture and forestry can better contribute to pollinator protection. Following these discussions, each group decided which topics they wanted to continue working on. Across the assembly, focus areas included agriculture, pesticide use, land use, drivers of cultural change, awareness, funding, interest groups, enforcement and implementation.

These focus areas will now guide the work of the upcoming third session (March 2026), during which the young participants will develop concrete recommendations.

The entire process is also being documented by a film team, creating a documentary on democracy that will be released in the coming year. This process is a powerful example of lived democracy and meaningful youth engagement. Giving young people space to learn, discuss and shape policy together is not only valuable for pollinators, but for the future of Europe as a whole.

If you would like to find out more and learn about the background, visit the website:

Or find out directly what the young citizens are doing via the Instagram channel (@ycap_eu).

We want to thank the Young Citizens Assembly on Pollinators Project for enabling Marla’s participation through funding. 

The LIFE Programme and the Nature Restoration Regulation are under threat! Two essential structures for nature conservation and Protected Areas. 

The LIFE Programme: enabling conservation throughout Europe

Protected Areas are pros when it comes to nature conservation and restoration work. It is what those working in our natural heritage do all day, every day. European funds are crucial for this work. For over 30 years, the LIFE Programme has funded conservation and restoration actions in Protected Areas — safeguarding not just nature, but people’s right to live on a healthy planet. Often national funds are not enough to cover these investments in our future and EU funds are fundamental to cover that gap.

The very effective LIFE Programme has also enabled Protected Areas to search for partners and co-operate with many organisations and institutions. It broke down silos by creating opportunities to reach out to other sectors, achieving impressive results in ambitious, large scale and multifaceted LIFE projects. It has indeed brought the nature sector closer to those with whom we do not often collaborate, or who may even have opposing views. That is exactly the power of LIFE: it strengthens the work of Protected Areas by fostering the exchange of experience with other sectors and facilitates the sharing of knowledge among the different LIFE projects across the EU.

The Nature Restoration Law: a beacon of hope for Europe’s nature

The Nature Restoration Regulation, aka the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), entered into force in August 2024. It was the result of months of negotiations and can be considered a beacon of hope for Europe’s nature. It is time to remind our EU and national decision-makers that nature restoration brings many benefits for society! Natural and restored habitats can mitigate climate change and protect us from natural disasters, like flooding. According to the World Economic Forum (2020), more than half of global GDP and two thirds of the EU’s added economic value depend on nature and its ecosystem services. Destruction of nature is a big driver of economic losses and financial risks. When we invest in nature restoration, we are investing EU’s “competitiveness, resilience, prosperity and security” (as stated in the Roadmap towards Nature Credits, COM (2025) 374).

Recent developments form a threat to conservation in Europe

Now all this is under attack. The proposal for the next European Union Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028‒2034, aka the EU Budget, was published by the European Commission in July 2025, and negotiations are ongoing. As we pointed out in our September article, there was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise in the proposal: the exclusion of the LIFE Programme.

If the LIFE Programme does not continue, nature conservation and restoration, implementation of the Natura 2000 network, maintenance of nature’s contributions to people, protection of threatened species and habitats, as well as the functioning of organisations and institutions managing these, are under direct threat. They will be facing serious problems as the LIFE funding is crucial for these actions. This is not just about protecting species or habitats: this is about protecting the health and lives of European citizens. At the very least, there needs to be earmarked funding for nature conservation and restoration and biodiversity action in the EU Budget and in the proposed funds. The ambition and value of this funding should not be lower than the current funding.

And there is more in store from the European side: the Nature Restoration Regulation, very recently approved, is now being considered for simplification. Such process would result in legal uncertainty, and surely in implementation delays of the much-needed restoration action in the EU. Furthermore, whilst we can all agree that “simplification” is in principle a positive action when it comes to bureaucracy, it might be more challenging to explain why a piece of legislation that has just been approved one year ago already needs to be considered for simplification. Overall, just the consideration of a brand-new regulation – that already had a difficult process to be approved – to be reviewed one year on, can raise some questions about the reasoning behind.

What can we do?

We, the Protected Area Community of Europe,

• Can try to talk to our country’s ministry that is responsible for environmental issues. More importantly, talk to your country’s finance ministry. Try to explain to them how important the LIFE Programme is for your Protected Area. Tell the story of how effective LIFE has been, and is, and as such should be one of the clear EU funding lines that should stay. Underline to them how important nature is for society and how essential it is to fund its protection and restoration.

• Spread the word! The time to act is now!