Idea for September 2026: European Green Belt

This is really neat. The iron curtain that used to divide east and west Europe was a border zone, running from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea and the Adriatic. This corridor was closed to the public – so there was little human activity, and nature thrived. As the European Green Belt initiative says, ‘the border zone granted nature a pause and has created a zone of life’.

To make the most of this happy accident, the European Green Belt Association was formed in 2014. It’s a group of 35 organisations from 17 countries which aims to conserve and restore the green belt as an extraordinary piece of natural and cultural heritage. So what used to divide can now unite.

Image: Wikimedia Commons