An 8-year-old girl has been found after two days lost in the Bohemian forest, on the German-Czech border. The Bavarian Red Cross in Cham (Germany) wrote on Facebook, that the odds of finding the child is ‘like a miracle’. The forest is so thick that authorities asked volunteers to refrain from joining the search for fear that more people would go missing. But thanks to the largest cross-border search that has ever taken place in the area, and involved hundreds of rescue workers including German and Czech police offers, firefighters, national park employees and even an Alpine police force that travelled from southern Upper Bavaria, the girl was safely located.

It is a moment such as this, that the true, human importance of cross-border cooperation becomes clear. It is a feat to be celebrated that this huge collaborative operation was possible and successful, it is also an event that offers a clear example for why functional and cooperative relationships must be established in all cross-border regions. The possibility that bureaucracy and lack of established networks of cooperation could have hindered the search and put this young girl at further danger is a horrifying thought that we must continue to work to prevent.