Peeters visits Malawi and Botswana

Flemish government provides €25 million for agricultural development

Development and diamonds were on the agenda of Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters during a week-long visit last week to southern Africa. The first port of call was Malawi, where Peeters was met by president Joyce Banda, who visited Brussels last October at Peeters’ invitation.

Peeters signed a memorandum of understanding between the governments of Flanders and Malawi, including a pledge for funding worth €25 million in support of Malawi’s agriculture over the next five years. “We believe that president Joyce Banda is making the right decisions, and we have agreed that this money should be used in agriculture, which is the top priority area in our agreement,” Peeters told the country’s Daily Times.

Alan Hope
(April 10, 2013)

Valley full of life

The river Maas sheds its polluted past to provide fertile grounds for the Maas Valley River Park

In the east of Flanders, the river Maas forms the border with the Netherlands for 46 kilometres. It’s now also the backbone of the RivierPark Maasvallei, a 2,500-hectare nature park co-created and maintained by Flemish and Dutch organisations that cleaned up the region after decades of mismanagement and pollution.

On a tour of the RivierPark Maasvallei (Maas Valley River Park), project leader Lambert Schoenmaekers points out how the area has been redeveloped in the last five years. Negotiations with farmers and gravel companies have already led to a park of 650 hectares in Flanders, and the goal is to return an area of about 1,100 hectares on this side of the border to nature.

Andy Furniere
(April 10, 2013)