EUROPARC Conferences bring together experts in Natura 2000 and Protected Area Management, offering them the ideal occasion to network and exchange. This year we will meet in the Netherlands from 3 – 6 October. You can already sign up for our ‘Landscape Festival’ and Market Place!

About the Conference

From the 3rd to the 6th of October, the EUROPARC network will come together in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, to pay “Tribute to our Landscape” at the EUROPARC Conference 2023. Our landscapes are part of the most valuable natural, social and cultural treasures of European society. Landscapes are where nature and people meet and interact in the past, present and future. We will celebrate the beauty and diversity of the versatile European natural and cultural landscapes. Humans have had an impact on the European landscape for centuries. This has created some of our most iconic landscapes, however it has also resulted in dis-harmony between people and nature. This EUROPARC Conference wants to help participants discover how we can connect people and nature, in order to find long-term harmony.

Furthermore, it will provide us with the excellent opportunity to celebrate our 50th Anniversary!

As always, the Conference will give ample space to our members & partners to present their work. Whilst registration will open later this year, you can already secure your place for our Landscape Festival and/or the Market Place!

Landscape Festival – 3rd of October 16:30 -21:00

The Landscape Festival provides businesses and organisations working in the field of nature management with the opportunity to present their innovative developments, processes, or technologies, to inspire conference delegates. A central element of the Landscape Festival is to provide interactive demonstrations or experiences.

Who can exhibit at the Landscape Festival?

Businesses, organisations, but also Protected Areas are invited to sign up for a space. The goal is to show innovative work. This can be a project, product, process, or even a campaign you’ve been running. EUROPARC members taking part in the Conference are free to participate and are given a space of 2×2 meters. From external companies, we ask for a fee of 350 euros (excl. VAT). Apart from your space, this also includes dinner for one person during the evening and, of course, the chance to present your product or work to around 350 Conference participants. It is also possible to present a pitch in a separate room.

Is your Protected Area working with innovative organisations or businesses? Then do feel free to invite them to partake in this event!

Market Place – 4th of October 17:00 -21:00

A trusted format of the EUROPARC Conferences: The Market Place is back! Those that have been to a EUROPARC Conference before will know that this is an excellent opportunity to network, share information and present your Protected Area.

Who can take part in the Market Place?

All European Protected Areas taking part in the Conference, as well as EUROPARC Sections and Commissions, are welcome to present their work. There is again a space of 2×2 meters available. Only if you need extra material like audio or visual equipment, as well as electricity, will there be additional costs.

Great! How can I sign up?

If you want to sign up for either the Landscape Festival or Market Place, or if you have further questions, you can contact:

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Siggen Seminar is EUROPARC’s annual free of charge training event for members, made possible through the generous support of the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung.

Parks Unlocked; Innovative Financing to Transform Parks across Europe.

Every year Alfred Toepfer Stiftung generously hosts EUROPARC members, in their excellent centre in Gut Siggen, North Germany. Here, we enjoy an intense and practically orientated seminar, examining and sharing expertise in a given aspect of Protected Areas work. You can find previous Siggen Seminars here.

This year, we will be taking a deep dive into models that attract private finance to unlock and drive nature restoration at scale. In particular, looking at the role Parks can play in building the market for investing in Europe’s natural capital. Let’s ensure Parks across Europe are investable and can take advantage of that €billion opportunity!

We will examine real life, real time examples from across Europe, identifying the requirements and changes needed in Protected Area network management, that will attract investmentWe will engage in a collective dialogue that will help us look at the current context, in order to transform ideas into specific actions needed to achieve the 30% target of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030.

Attendees need to be in position where they can provide input to scale up nature restoration plans in their region, territory, and country!

The seminar will also be looking at the creation of a scoping project, to develop a feasibility study and tested model, to indicate how such financing can be identified and utilised and what conditions are required to be in place, by Protected Area networks, to attract successful investment. We will be seeking partners to join this project, so interested parties are also encouraged to join the seminar.

The seminar is FREE to EUROPARC members. Participants are only asked to cover travel costs to Siggen.

Please note, that due to limited space, a selection will be made: do not book your travels until we have confirmed your participation.

Register now: Siggen Seminar 2023 on Innovative Financing. Deadline for registration: 01/03/2023

Register here!

Practical information

The Siggen Seminar Center belongs to the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and lies on the north-eastern coast of Germany in the county of Holstein. It is a 20 minute taxi ride from the nearest train station, Oldenburg (Holst), and a five-minute bike-ride to the nearest beach.

Please contact EUROPARC with any questions you might have and download the pdf Directions to Siggen to learn how you can easily reach it by plane, train or car.

The Star Awards are the Sustainable Tourism Business Awards, meant to recognise the efforts of busineses towards creating Sustainable Tourism.

Pensión Candelaria – talking the talk!

Travel notes, Pensión Candelaria

The International Jury awarded the accommodation Pensión Candelaria from La Gomera in the ‘Communicating the values of my Park and Business’ Category. Despite being a small company, they are very active leading, cooperating and communicating about actions and projects linked to environmental problems on the island. This ranges from fires, reforestation, carbon footprint compensation to beach cleaning. 

Pensión Candelaria is our second winner from the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in La Gomera. The staff puts great care into promoting the natural values of the area to their visitors, particular to German tourists.

Through the Facebook group “La Gomera Insider – Inselnachrichten”, the Director of Candelaria, Carol Gewetzki, sends out information of interest related to the island, Valle Gran Rey and the Garajonay National Park. Through the project “Travel Notes: Stories and Legends”, Carol also compiled information of each of the municipalities of the area in a travel notebook format. In these little books, the joint history is told to allow tourists to get to know the area. Furthermore, she designed a guide on the National Park Garajonay with little known places and information about the Park.

Plantation activities

However, the Pensión Candelaria does not just tell the story of the area, they also help maintain it! The staff are active collaborators in the Plántate project. This participatory project promotes the reforestation of thermophilic forests in La Gomera. They also offer customers the possibility to offset their carbon footprint locally, either through participating in the plantation efforts, or by giving a direct financial contribution to the project. Furthermore, the staff actively promotes other sustainability activities like beach cleaning to its guests and travellers, mainly those who speak German.

They frequently communicate with staff from the National Park and the accommodation actively promotes them by making all the brochures and maps available to its customers. To further their sustainability efforts, Candelaria actively promotes walking routes that can be reached from the accommodation, to reduce the usage of private vehicles.

Congratulations on these great achievements!

The International Jury awarded the Hotel Gran Rey (ES) from La Gomera in the ‘Reducing impacts on the environment’ category. The Hotel has done a very good and well documented job of implementing different measures to reduce water and electricity consumption, recycle and reduce packaging.

Hosting people, the eco-friendly way

View from Hotel Gran Rey

Hotel Gran Rey offers a sustainable place to stay, for all those that want to enjoy a natural holiday. The hotel was created with the philosophy of integrating into the environment. It is located in a landscape formed by steep cliffs, palm groves, springs, and farmhouses. The hotel has eliminated all exotic plants in their landscaped garden and replaced them by native species. It belongs to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in La Gomera since 2011, and as such, works closely together with the Garajonay National Park.

The staff actively promotes the National Park and pictures of the area decorate the rooms, all aimed at making their visitors aware of the rich natural area they are visiting.

Furthermore, their vegetable garden wants to rescue agricultural varieties that could disappear and recover the soil. Of course, the harvest of the vegetable garden then ends up on the plates of the restaurant that is part of the hotel, effectively creating 0 km produce. They work with local suppliers for anything they cannot grow on their own.

Hotel Gran Rey in the landscape

The hotel also actively works on reducing its energy needs, for example through using energy efficient LED lights, and helps remind their visitors to support them in this goal. They have also installed solar panels and renewable energy now makes up 37% of the total energy consumption. Furthermore, Hotel Gran Rey is very conscious about its water-usage: they use drip-irrigation in the gardens and have installed flow restrictors on the taps in the rooms.

All these efforts have resulted in different prizes and certifications. Now, they can add the EUROPARC STAR Award winner to the list!

The Star Awards are EUROPARC’s recognition for the work done by sustainable tourism businesses and operators that are part of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism.