Nature
Knows
No
Boundaries
Stories are powerful. They connect you to your memories, your emotions, your beliefs. Often things change because of a story that “hits you in the heart.” Sharing our stories and experiences, our challenges and joys, our new ideas or how to solve a problem, our advice on what to avoid or embrace in the world of Protected Areas, has been the secret “superpower” within EUROPARC.
So, as EUROPARC celebrates its Golden Jubilee. Let's take this opportunity to tell the stories of the people and events that have made this possible.
Take a journey through this interactive storybook, charting some of the people and events of the past 50 years. The vines and leaves will guide you through different paths on your story journey. Click on them in any order you wish. They appear at the beginning and end of each section. Inside, you will find images, videos and links that tell you more. Audio allows you to hear people directly.
Enjoy, learn, reflect on the stories of then and now and what is yet to be. From today, we begin the story of the next 50 years.
The heart beat of EUROPARC is its members, and the Federation its voice. Let's share the story of EUROPARC through their own words.
It has been the fellowship of coming together, with a shared vision and a common purpose that has built our organisation.
Our vision is of a Sustainable Nature; Valued by People and our purpose, to encourage and facilitate interaction and collaboration that will deliver that vision and promise.
For parks and for people.
EUROPARC believes that…
Back in 1980, Senator Giacobbi, President of EUROPARC between 1984 - 1987, said of the early EUROPARC years:
“ It's easy to say that we are in a difficult position because of external factors. To start with, the problem was lack of general interest in the concept of nature conservation, but now the difficulties lie in the economic field and there is a tendency to shelve financial responsibility for protected areas onto other shoulders. [...]
The Federation is not simply a club with social gatherings. Its aim is to work together, to exchange knowledge, to compare results and to convince their persons and organisations that the future of Europe lies in an environment which makes living worthwhile. And it is here that nature and national parks play such an essential role. International cooperation from North to South from East to West is a precondition for effective action and our Federation can ensure that this cooperation works.
By concentrating on what unites us rather than what separates us, I hope that we will be able to achieve all that which we know must be achieved. [...] There are similarities enough to unite us in our wish to make this part of the globe a better place to live in”
This could very well have been said yesterday! It is the very diversity and accessibility of Europe’s Protected Areas that is their greatest asset, yet too, their greatest management challenge.
EUROPARC has supported its members throughout its history, to conserve biodiversity and cultural values focusing on improving management where people and nature interact. Over decades, the Federation exposed members to new management and governance systems, working better with local people, to ensure there is a healthy and resilient nature.
With and through local people, mainly for and by them.
Our story shows Protected Areas, were early adopters of management based on a co-operative, consensus approach. Still, the parks’ community continues to learn and innovate, to improve management that is professional, flexible and adaptive. EUROPARC has helped parks experiment and identify measurements of success in both environmental and social terms, that will influence a supportive political and economic environment. This sense of continual improvement and learning permeates EUROPARC and the European parks world.
It is said:
“A sense of curiosity is nature's original school of education.”
- Smiley Blanton
This is certainly true of EUROPARC members through the decades. Curiosity, to improve the Protected Areas for which they are responsible. To safeguard and improve the natural and cultural qualities of their regions and nations and ensure there is a positive story to tell to future generations.
R. A. Boote Director of the Nature Conservancy Council, England said of the early Federation:
”It is worth emphasising that the Peoples of Europe now attach much more importance to their environment and in particular to the conservation of its nature and landscapes, although this is not yet identified in the priorities of resources allocated to them by governments. The Federations work could contribute positively to the lives of all Europeans. Furthermore, the Federation provides a valuable base for cooperation between countries of Western and Eastern Europe, communicating ideas and enthusiasms across frontiers amongst people working in research, administration and site management at all [Protected Area] levels.”
That was then, and now, it is clear, our work is not yet done and will continue. EUROPARC will learn lessons from the past, about ourselves as an organisation, and how we came to be, but more so, about the ability to create new paths for our future.
Our legacy is our continual curiosity, our ability to change, innovate and improve and to ensure a welcoming space, created by members, for all of Europe's Parks and Protected Areas. Because, the Parks and Protected Areas of Europe are a variety of landscapes, embedded in cultural identity. Sculpted by nature and shaped by people. Influenced over the course of history, inspiring artists and thinkers and enriching lives. They are our natural life support system. These Protected Areas represent the land that is our inheritance - we hold it in trust for those who come after us.
Read their words and hear their inspirational stories.
Choose a leaf to continue your story journey.