On the 22nd of June, www.proparktraining.ro, the platform for online courses dedicated to future Protected Area specialists, has been opened to the public.

The first online session in 2015 is accesible to 85 selected participants that have been targeted amongst people directly or indirectly involved in the management of Protected Areas, as well as students enthusiastic and motivated to start working for Protected Areas.

During and after 6 weeks of intensive study within the virtual platform, the students will be evaluated. Based on the results, the first 30 students will participate at face to face sessions to become the first certified Protected Area Specialists in Romania.

The platform is developed within the project „Increasing education opportunities on sustainable development for Protected Area managers in Romania“ implemented by Propark Foundation for Protected Areas with the help of EUROPARC Federation and financed by DBU – Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (German Federal Foundation Environment).

Discover in our Newsletter what we have been up to over the last 3 months: our participation in prestigious European events, the European Day of Parks, the 2015 TransParcNet meeting, our current work on the BioEUParks project and the Birds and Habitats Directives Fitness Check, the news coming from Brussels or from our network and much more…

Read the EUROPARC June eNews for some great ideas and events coming up.

Hope you enjoy reading!

To have access to our previous eNews, check out the dedicated page on our website.

Our goal of protecting the unique variety of wildlife, habitats and landscapes in Europe can be achieved only by developing our professional capacity to effectively manage Protected Areas. A competence-based, systematic and comprehensive approach to capacity building is therefore needed to enable us to achieve conservation goals at national and European level.

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The section on capacity building is a first step towards the development of a coherent, competence based approach to Protected Area professionalization within Europe. It is launched now as a portal providing information on capacity development needs in 23 Eastern European countries, recommendations on how to strengthen the capacities at regional, national or local level and initiatives to develop the professional capacity of Protected Area staff. But we hope that it will grow into a Europe-wide portal on this important domain.

The section presents the unique initiative of developing national and regional plans in 2 pilot countries and one region which can be used as a model approach to be replicated in other countries and regions.

The section was developed as a result of the project ”Capacity Building Plans for Efficient Protected Area Management in Eastern Europe”, implemented by PROPARK Foundation for Protected Areas in Romania, and commissioned by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN).

The project will be finalized in November 2015, so stay in touch for updates!

Learn more about the Project here and get to the Capacity Building Section.

The beautiful Šumava (CZ) and Bavarian Forest (DE) National Parks are hosting the 2015 TransParcNet Meeting. These transboundary Parks will be the location of an exciting training until this Friday.

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This year’s meeting will look at “The value of healthy ecosystems for nature and people” from a transboundary perspective. Participants will study practical examples of raised bog restoration in the Bohemian Forest as well as the natural dynamic of ecosystems and their effects on biodiversity.

Moreover, they will enjoy views on the area from mountain tops and tree top walks, learning about the value of visitor management in order for everybody to benefit from the natural landscape.

The training will take place during the whole week and should be an amazing opportunity once again to develop good practices in transboundary cooperation, discover cross-border partnerships in other parks and look into common project ideas.

For more information about our Transboundary Parks Programme, visit our website.