Award
The Quarry Life Award is a scientific and education competition, which takes place every three years and runs simultaneously at national and international levels. Its aim is to raise the awareness of the ecological value of extraction sites and sharing new best practices. Learn more about the participating projects here.
Join us for the celebration of the Quarry Life Award winners, virtually or in person at the Egg in Brussels! The 5th edition of our competition will bring together ideas from more than 70 projects in 16 countries for the protection of nature and biodiversity management in quarries.
- Date and time: Monday, 17/10 | 17.15 - 22.00
- Registration: here
Nature walk
The best way to end the the summit is to get immersed in the most beautiful forest in Brussels in a walk to network and discover the secrets of the Sonian Forest.
Join Herman Van Rompuy, President of board of the Sonian Forest Foundation and former Belgian Prime Minister and President of the European Council, and the Forest Manager for a walk to network and discover the secrets of the Sonian Forest. The venue will be reached by train, the walk will start in Groenendael at 15.00 and will last for approximately 2 hours (arrival back to Brussels at 17:40).
- Date and time: Wednesday 19/10 | 15.00 - 17.00
- Meeting point: 14.10 at Brussels-South Station (Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid) or 15:00 at Groenendael station
- Guide: Herman Van Rompuy, President, Board of the Sonian Forest Foundation, and Frederik Vaes, Brussels Manager, Sonian Forest
Community meeting
The meeting is reserved for the members of the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation only. The members of the Foundation are financial institutions that have signed the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, a call on global leaders and committing to protect and restore biodiversity through their finance activities and investments.
The aim of the Foundation is to support this call to action and collaboration between financial institutions via working groups, as a connecting body for contributing signatories and partner organizations.
- Date and time: Tuesday, 18/10 | 12.00-13.30
- Room: Riverside, The Egg
It will be my pleasure to welcome you to the Sonian forest.
The Sonian Forest Foundation was set up to preserve the ecological heart of the forest and its vulnerable fauna and flora.
We are a link between the Belgian and European institutions. We are not just neighbours. We are part of the same whole. It’s in the DNA of the Sonian Forest Foundation to involve all stakeholders of the Forest. Which will be benefit for the forest, its fauna and flora, but also for its stakeholders and visitors, the people of today and tomorrow.
I will show you a brief overview of the forest during this visit. Just enough to make you want to come back later.
The Sonian Forest is much more than the most important green space in the Brussels Region, the largest deciduous forest in Flanders and the most extraordinary beech forest in Belgium. It is an ancient woodland, with an exceptional and very well-documented history. As a uniquely preserved landscape dating back to the end of the last Ice Age, it has an exceptional ecosystem with a fauna and flora that is miraculously rich for an urban forest.