Hello! I’m Carolina and I’m currently IVY Interreg Project Partner in Finnova Foundation for the Interreg Spain-Portugal Program and, namely, for the Interreg FIREPOCTEP+ Project. What is it?
Briefly, “Interreg” stands for European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), is one of the two goals of European Cohesion Policy (that aims to correct imbalances between countries and regions), and has the function to implement joint actions and policy exchanges between different Member States of the European Union.
FIREPOCTEP+ aims to strengthen forest fire prevention and suppression systems in the cross-border region between Spain and Portugal known as “La Raya”, where wildfires have become increasingly common due to climate change and deforestation. To reach this goal, the project partners cooperate by sharing their knowledge, experiences, human, material, and financial resources.
Lots of actors will benefit from this Project: the partners of the consortium; the cooperation territory and its population; the regional and local administrations, territorial managers and emergency response operatives; the technical professional groups that are specialized in forest fire prevention and suppression, climate change adaptation and mitigation.
But what about my contribution?
As an IVY Interreg Project Partner, I am supporting Finnova Foundation’s technicians in the management of the Interreg Project, collaborating with the communication and marketing department in creating FIREPOCTEP+ Project’s promotional materials, press releases, and contents for websites and social media; helping in organizing and managing events related to the project; participating in technical meetings and maintaining contact with the project partners. I am also developing sustainability actions for the project and analyzing contents to find appropriate solutions to the cooperation territory’s challenges.
I am grateful to the IVY Program for allowing me to have this experience, being an opportunity to deepen my understanding of European territorial projects, cooperation and Cohesion policies. Moreover, not only can I take part in promoting cooperation between Spain and Portugal, but I am also learning new things, improving languages, meeting people from different countries and backgrounds, and developing useful skills for my professional career.
Contributing to the European Cohesion Policy, and to the FIREPOCTEP+ Project in particular, makes me happy and proud because I care a lot about the environment, and I believe in the positive impact we can make every day with our actions.
