Regional Nature Park representatives from 20 European states sign Declaration in Brussels

Brussels/Bonn, 21 Juni 2017. A joint Declaration entitled “Regional Nature Parks – Working for Europe” was signed yesterday at the First European Summit of Regional Nature Parks in Brussels by representatives of Regional Nature Parks from 20 European states. Some 100 people from several countries attended the event, held in the Representation of the State of North-Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union in Brussels.

In the Declaration, representatives from Regional Nature Parks call on the European Union and its Member States to make greater use of Regional Nature Parks in implementing an integrated, far-sighted approach for a sustainable rural Europe. It pays off to strengthen Regional Nature Parks because they are in a position to help ensure an even better on-the-ground implementation of the Nature Directives of the European Union, such as the Habitats Directive, the Birds Directive and the Water Framework Directive. They also support the European Union and its Member States in achieving their political goals, such as the Biodiversity Strategy and the Green Infrastructure Strategy.

Regional Nature Parks

Regional Nature Parks are model regions for the innovative and sustainable development of rural areas. Owing to the nature of their work and their considerable experience, they are important partners in the area of sustainable agriculture, and should therefore be involved more closely in future regional development programmes. They also play a guiding role in Education for Sustainable Development, acting as strong partners for schools and other public educational institutions.

These were just some of the topics discussed in a panel with Margrete Auken, Member of the European Parliament, Nicola Notaro, Head of Unit for Nature Protection at the DG Environment, European Commission, Martin Scheele, Head of Unit for Conception and Consistency of Rural Development at the DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission, and Ignace Schops, President of EUROPARC Federation, the umbrella organisation of European protected areas.

From left to right: Nicola Notaro, Monika Hoegen, Martin Scheele, Ignace Schops

“Living Landscapes”

At the event, the Association of German Nature Parks teamed up with EUROPARC Federation to present their book entitled “Living Landscapes”, which provides information about Europe’s Regional Nature Parks and the results of the first comprehensive study on these parks. Europe has almost 900 Regional Nature Parks in 20 Member States of the European Union plus Switzerland and Norway, covering 8% of the total surface area of the EU-28.

The study was supported by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with funding from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. In her welcome address, Dr. Christiane Paulus, Deputy Director General for Nature Conservation of the German Environment Ministry, praised the ground-breaking work of the project. She commended the idea of cooperating on the parks’ regional functions at European level because this opens opportunities for transnational exchange. Dr. Paulus remarked, “It also supports the ideal of a united, common Europe, an important symbol in the current times.” The Declaration conveys Regional Nature Parks’ commitment to joint action and, simultaneously, communicates their legitimate desire for support from the European Union and its member countries.

Here you can download an English and German version of this press release, the book “Living Landscapes” and the Declaration.

If you have any questions, please contact the Project Coordinator Katharina Denkinger (+49 176 20533614, katharina.denkinger@naturparke.de) or Ulrich Köster, Director of the Association of German Nature Parks (+49 175 5917470, ulrich.koester@naturparke.de).

On 14th of June, 21 representatives EUROPARC Memberbs, representing European protected areas from 8 countries and 12 officers of the European Commission – Directorate-General for Environment participated in the Seminar-dialogue Partnerships for Biodiversity: European policies and the role of Protected Areas, jointly organised by EUROPARC and DG ENVI.

A unique dialogue opportunity

The objective of the seminar was to analyse the role that protected areas are playing in the implementation of the European policies, related not only to biodiversity protection and Natura 2000, but also to sustainable agriculture and fisheries, sustainable tourism, health, youth and transboundary cooperation. In the event, a deliberately limited number of participants were involved in order to facilitate the interaction and the debate.

A seminar with a wide perspective

About 12 inspiring case studies on the different topics were presented and discussed. Furthermore, in the presentations and in the debate, special attention was given to the:

• Partnerships that protected areas are establishing with business sector and local communities.
• Importance of cooperation and collaboration with stakeholders and public institutions.
• Connections between Natura 2000 network management and national and regional protected areas.
• Need to raise awareness among the decision makers about the importance of the protected areas in sustainable development and wellness.
• Importance to celebrate success and give positive messages.
• Need of consistency and stability, in terms both of funds and of policies, to maintain the credibility in the partnership and to act at long term.
• Necessity not only of innovate but also of giving continuity to projects.
• Importance not only of the big investments but also of the small projects, which can produce very important benefits.
• Necessity of protected areas to work more in the communication to the public about the Natura 2000 values.
• Competence of EU (about Natura2000) and of the member states and regions (about national and regional protected areas) and how to combine them and make them coherent.
• Role of the member states in influencing the European policies and, consequently, the importance for EUROPARC and the protected areas to dialogue at all levels, local, national and European.

New Action Plan for Nature, People and Economy

During the seminar DG ENVI presented the new “Action Plan for nature, people and the economy” adopted by EU following a thorough evaluation of the Birds and Habitats Directives, to improve their implementation and boost their contribution towards reaching the EU’s biodiversity targets for 2020.
The objectives of the Nature Action Plan are: to realise the full potential of the Directives; to achieve healthy ecosystems, whose services benefit people, nature and economy; to boost their contribution towards reaching the EU’s biodiversity targets for 2020; to improve the Directives’ coherence with broader socio-economic objectives.
Likewise, the Nature Action Plan identifies 4 priority areas of Action: improving guidance and knowledge and ensuring better coherence with broader socio-economic objectives; building political ownership and strengthening compliance; strengthening investment in Natura 2000 and improving synergies with EU funding instruments; better communication and outreach, engaging citizens, stakeholders and communities.

The seminar with DG ENVI was anticipated by an internal meeting between EUROPARC and protected area representatives in order to present the federation’s work on lobby and advocacy in Brussels, and to explore the connections between the work of protected areas and the 6 Strategic Targets of the European Strategy  for the Biodiversity:

• 1.Protect species and habitats;
• 2.Maintain and restore ecosystems;
• 3.Achieve more sustainable agriculture and forestry;
• 4.Make fishing more sustainable and seas healthier;
• 5.Combat invasive alien species;
• 6.Help stop the loss of global biodiversity.

This event confirms once again the very good collaboration established for years between EUROPARC and DG ENVI who, considering the success of the seminar, are planning to replicate it in the future.

Presentations

Below, you can have a look on the presentations that were exposed during the seminar:

• Management of habitats and species.
• Seminar introduction – Partnerships for biodiversity: European policies and the role of Protected Areas.
• Collective marks in Parks to value and diferentiate local products on territories.
• The challenges of Transboundary Protected Areas.
• Communications for Natura 2000 Managers.
• Charter enterprises in Spain: working with partners.
• Marine Protected Area management at Kornati National Park.
• Junior Ranger programme.
• ECSTPA–part 3: partnerships between Parks and tour operators.
• Expertise in the creation and management of Urban Green Spaces.
• An Action Plan for nature, people and the economy.
• Engaging fishing communities: protecting fishermen and fish as a target of an MPA.

Since EUROPARC French Section developed Charter Part III for the first time in 2014, no other section had gone further in awarding tour operators with the Charter. In January 2017, Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa, in close cooperation with Turisme Garrotxa (ECST Permanent Forum) awarded Nit i Vol and Trescàlia with the ECST Part III, being pioneer in Spain once again: in this case, in implementing agreements with tour
operators.

Charter Part III: Implementation process

The methodology followed by these 2 travel agencies was approved by EUROPARC Federation on October 2015 in Regensburg and basically consists in following steps:

1) Diagnosis of the candidate based on a checklist: candidate must inform on how the travel agency fulfils criteria (checklist system) focused on:

•  “Social and labour policy” (training policy in the enterprise, good practices for reconciling work and family life, etc.)
• “Environmental policy” (calculation of carbon footprint, green procurement, carrying capacity consideration when planning visits, relationship with the protected area, etc.)
• “Economic policy” (customer satisfaction surveys, market targeting, etc.).

The key items sum up to 66 but there is no minimum number of criteria that the candidate has to reach -no threshold applies-. Thus, the checklist is just to inform on the starting point and current state of the candidate.

2) Proposal of future actions – commitment: candidate must inform on planned activity to improve its performance in action fields mentioned above: “Social and labour policy”, “Environmental policy” and “Economic policy”. The proposal was approved by the Permanent Forum, Turisme Garrotxa in this case.

3) Submission of the proposal, composed by current diagnosis (check-list on 66 items), action plan and application letter altogether with other formal documents to Charter Part III Evaluation Board, whose members are:

• A member of Spanish section EUROPARC-España.
• A member of Spanish Tourist Board, Secretaría de Estado de Turismo, in charge of tourism agency Turespaña.
• A technician on behalf of regional tourism administration: currently a member of Consejería de Turismo y Deporte, Junta de Andalucía (Andalusian Government).
• A technician on behalf of ECST protected area: currently a member of Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa’s staff.
• A member of TUREBE, Ecotourism Club in Spain Club Ecoturismo en España
• A tourism agency on behalf of this sector: Agrotravel.

Based on the current performance of the candidate, as well as considering future commitment with the protected area, this board suggests a decision on awarding the ECST Part III to Europarc España, who finally approves or rejects the candidate. A fee of 300€ must be paid to Europarc España to register as a Charter Part III partner, award valid for a 3 year period.

Sustainable Tourism Agreement

Once the travel agency is awarded the Carter Part III, an agreement has to be signed between the enterprise and the protected area. Such agreement includes the future commitment of the travel agency in following key aspects:

• “Creating ecotourism products”,
• “Support conservation and local development”,
• “Management improvement of the travel agency”
• “Communication between the travel agency and the protected area”.

As an example, Nit i Vol and Trescàlia have included in their action plan organising at least 2 meetings per year with the protected area in order to keep updated on protected area regulations, projects and so on.

Also in order to show their connection with the protected area, both travel agencies will include detailed information on Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa in their marketing deliverables (Trescalia already informs on its commitment in its website: http://trescalia.com/about-us/responsible-tourism/).

Future actions

Charter Part III travel agencies will, from now onwards, take part in the steering committee that was set out in la Garrotxa during its first application to the ECST and that still meets quarterly to monitor the 4rth Charter Action Plan implementation (2016 – 2020).

Worth to note is that Carter Part III travel agencies from la Garrotxa can now easily sign an agreement with other ECST protected areas all over Europe as long as they have implemented Charter Part II. In this case, both enterprises can follow a fast track process and skip steps regarding diagnosis and proposal described above.

Evaluation on how Charter Part III performs in Garrotxa and its outputs on boosting sustainable tourism will be easily run: joint annual reporting is required on how the travel agency progresses on the actions agreed with the protected area and on how the protected area reaches out its hand to enterprises targeting ecotourism.

For further information:
Joan Pijuan Coromina
Technician at Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa
T. 00 34 972 26 60 12
e-mail: jpijuan @ gencat.cat

“Regional Nature Parks – strong partners for nature conservation and sustainable rural development”

• Wednesday, 21 June 2017, 18.00 h – 21.00 h
• Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union,
• Rue Montoyer 47, 1000 Brussels

The almost 900 Regional Nature Parks in Europe were established in 20 Member States of the EU-28 as well as in Switzerland and Norway during the last decades. They play an important role in safeguarding beautiful landscapes and biodiversity in Europe and became a driving force for sustainable rural development and job creation in the Member States. Yet, there is still unused potential to enhance this interconnection and to further develop the multi-stakeholder approach stretching from the local to the European level.

The First European Summit of Regional Nature Parks in Europe is dedicated to answering the question of how Regional Nature Parks can be more effectively used to achieve the EU’s objectives in the fields of nature conservation and sustainable development, by bringing together experts from the European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament.

Download full programme

The Association of German Nature Parks, in cooperation with EUROPARC Federation and funded by the German Environment Ministry, has carried out an empirical study on the situation of Regional Nature Parks in Europe. The study showcases the work and the governance of the European Regional Nature Parks in the 22 countries. A book with the results of the study will be presented at the summit meeting; it will animate the debate of a distinguished panel of experts and political actors about a more efficient use of these parks for achieving the objectives of the EU in the field of nature conservation and sustainable development.

Register today!