The Pan-Baltic hiking online conference on November 9, 2021 celebrated the success of the Baltic Trails (baltictrails.eu) connecting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with the European network of hiking paths as part of the routes E9 (Baltic Coastal Hiking) and E11 (Baltic Forest trail).

The conference brought together stakeholders sharing experiences in planning, implementation, management and maintenance of long distance cross-border hiking trails. The keynote speeches presented experiences from the Baltics, Sweden and Norway. Presentations followed by Baltic panel discussions highlighting challenges and solutions in practical aspects such as local acceptance and support, benefits and sustainability of long distance hiking trails.

>>> The programme (PDF)

>>> Pan-Baltic discussion summary highlights (PDF)

>>> Photos
>>> Miro platform

Presentation The speaker
THE BALTIC TRAILS -  experiences, challenges, solutions, future plans  and expectations Asnāte Ziemele, Latvian country tourism association „Lauku ceļotājs”
NATIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR HIKING TRAILS Kenneth Joelsson, Tourism in Skåne AB, Sweden
Norwegian Scenic Hikes Practical experiences in hiking trail develpment and  management in Norway Trygve Sunde Kolderup Head of Sustainability,  The Norwegian Trekking Association
Baltic Panel - Estonia: Baltic Coastal Hiking route and Baltic Forest Hiking route Tõiv Jõul, NGO West-Estonia Tourism and Raili Mengel, Estonian Rural Tourism
organization
Baltic Panel - Lithuania: Local acceptance and support, sustainability, benefits, added value Agne Vaitkuviene, Lithuanian Countryside Tourism Association and Renata Kilinskaite,
Curonian Spit National Park
Baltic Panel - Latvia: Current situation in Latvia Aija Neilande, Kurzeme Planning region and Edgars Ražinskis, Riga Planning region

>>> Conference recording:


>>> Press releases

  1. Visa Eiropa – gājiena attālumā!
    Mežtaka un Jūrtaka savieno Baltijas valstis ar Eiropas garo distanču pārgājienu takām
    (08.11.2021.)

  2. Two long distance hiking trails now link Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with rest of Europe (november, 2021)


The project “The long-distance cross-border hiking route FOREST TRAIL” (04/01/2019 - 06/30/2021) is partly funded by the European Union and the Central Baltic Programme 2014-2020 of the European Regional Development Fund.

Project LLI-448 “Development of Forest trail in Latvia and Lithuania and expanding the Baltic Coastal Hiking route in Lithuania” (Hiking project) is being implemented with the support of the European Union Interreg V-A Interreg Latvia - Lithuania Programme 2014–2020. Total costs of the project are EUR 788,104. Co-funding by the European Regional Development Fund is EUR 669,888.