Our 5th monitoring meeting took place after the last activity of field research. Indeed, a few days before the meeting, we did the final inspection at the site of the Oasis of the Lacrima Channel in order to directly verify whether after about 8 months from our first site visit, being passed a winter season and being in the peak of spring season, it was possible to appreciate some developments of the existing vegetation and of the plants which were planted through the interventions financed by the project.

The visit was led by botanist Piero Medagli and municipal manager Riccardo Taurino, who oversaw the financing procedure for the oasis and the administrative procedures for implementing the works. A school group was also present and took part in the visit.

Following the inspection, the facilitators met with the group of students from of the A. Volta Institute. Volta di Campi, who have actively participated since the beginning of the monitoring activity. We put together all the information collected during our field reseach and compared the results with those envisaged in the initial project. We tried to make an overall assessment, which will be included in the final monitoring report.

At the debate meeting held on 25th May at the Manifatture Knos in Lecce, the participants were informed of the first considerations made by the monitoring group on the effectiveness of the project. We reported our perplexity regarding the lack of a management plan that guarantees the care, maintenance and further development of the oasis in the future and also the lack of a more defined strategy of citizens involvement. In fact, it appers that care of the oasis mostly relies on the spontaneous voluntary work of environmental organizations which have not yet been identified and activated.

The meeting gave us the opportunity to gather ideas and proposals that will be included in the final monitoring report.