The workshop was organized by the editorial team of The Open Country (an international journal on the understanding and conservation of grassland communities). The agenda of the workshop was built on the results of a survey conducted in December 2001, when a questionnaire was circulated to identify the priorities in grassland restoration across Europe. All respondents (31 persons representing 15 countries) supported the establishment of a working group with a goal

to develop an exchange of knowledge and good practices in grassland restoration across Europe. Among the possible functions of such group the following activities were named:

• to facilitate contacts between researchers in different countries;
• to strengthen communication between scientists and practitioners;
• to initiate joint projects and help to fund them;
• to establish priorities for on-the-ground actions across Europe;
• to lobby for legal incentives for grassland restoration;
• to articulate the importance of grassland restoration to raise awareness on the issue;
• etc.

A summary of the results of the questionnaire is available on request from Julia Kuleshova (Julia_kuleshova@mtu-net.ru).

The workshop participants (22 attendees, the list is below) supported the idea of establishing European working group on grassland restoration, under the auspices of Euro-SER, and proposed as its first priority activities the following:

• to set up an e-mail list for the exchange of information on grassland restoration as a first step towards establishing the working group;
• to explore the activities of other existing European organizations dealing with grasslands (such as EGF);
• to collect and make available information about on-going projects on grassland restoration in Europe;
• to conduct the first meeting of the group next year. Possible venue for such a meeting is Galichya Gora Nature Reserve in Russia or Bile Karpaty Protected Landscape Area in Czech Republic.

For the time being, the contact person, before official establishment of the working group, will be Andrew Jones (Grassland Trust, UK) and Julia Kuleshova (The Open Country, Russia).

e-mails: andy@andytjones.fsnet.co.uk and julia_kuleshova@mtu-net.ru.

LIST OF ATTENDEES

1. Barbara Becker arge.becker@eunet.at
2. Armin Bischoff armin.bischoff@unifr.ch
3. Anicó Csecserits picok@ludens.elte.hu
4. Kris Decleer kris.decleer@instnat.be
5. Brigitte Haberreiter Brigitte.haberreiter@aon.at
6. Michael Hayes mike.hayes@bbsrc.ac.uk
7. Norbert Hölzel Norbert.hoelzel@agrar.uni-giessen.de
8. Andrew Jones andy@andytjones.fsnet.co.uk
9. Ivana Jongepierova jongepierova@bilekarpaty.cz
10. Vladimir Kricsfalusy vlad@eco.uzhgorod.ua
11. Julia Kuleshova Julia_kuleshova@mtu-net.ru
12. Simona Maccherini maccherini@unisi.it
13. Katalin Margóczi margoczi@bio.u-szeged.hu
14. Valentina Maryushkina maryushkina@botanical-garden.kiev.ua
15. Ivona Matĕjková ivona.matejkova@seznam.cz
16. Jonathan Mitchley j.mitchley@ic.ac.uk
17. Richard Scott rscott@landlife.org.uk
18. Dieter Ramseier ramseier@geobot.ethz.ch
19. Harald Rötzer harald.roetzer@I-one.at
20. Rebeka Szabo rebeca@botanika.hu
21. Jan van Uytvanck jan.van.uytvanck@instnat.be
22. Markus Wagner markus.wagner@oekologie.uni-jena.de