INTERNATIONAL

CO-OPERATION

FUTURE

PROTECTION &

CONSERVATION

OF NATURE

BECAUSE

NATURE

KNOWS NO

BOUNDARIES

INTO THE

FUTURE

BACK TO

THE START

Through personal contact comes KNOWLEDGE & INNOVATION.

Members are the living library of EUROPARC, and it was concerns expressed by members about the role and impact of tourism in Protected Areas that led EUROPARC to form a working group to investigate and gather evidence.

That international group produced the seminal report "Loving Them to Death", published in 1993. This outlined the need for a more sustainable approach to the management and planning of tourism in Protected Areas, crucially, with the tourism businesses as partners.

The ECST sought to work with the tourism sector to manage visitors better, in a way that was not harmful to the nature they had come to enjoy. The programme’s purpose then, as it is now, is to balance the needs of nature with those of visitors and those who live and work in these iconic landscapes. It is a bottom-up, community-involved methodology, building a partnership between the Protected Area, the community, and tourism businesses, of a sustainable destination. EUROPARC aims for this to be the European gold standard.

In 2019, the film “A Sustainable Journey” produced by EUROPARC, about how the ECST has worked for people and parks, won multiple awards.

It guides us through an experience of tourism that speaks to our hearts and minds, sharing the voices of those who live and work in the landscapes, showing that visitors can enjoy a holiday while being responsible and caring towards nature and the culture of the chosen destination. It tells the story too of those whose very livelihoods are connected to the protected area.

“It’s very important to work with the park, because even if there are some rules to obey, quite right that they should be, the landscape should be respected, otherwise the mountains will be ruined.”

- Sergio Giodano Farmer, Alpi Martimme Natural Park IT

To precipitate change in how we value, manage and communicate about our Protected Areas requires exchange of skills, knowledge and capacity building of our parks’ people.

From its inception, EUROPARC had the foresight to invest in, and encourage, peer-to-peer learning, utilising the best technology of the day.

Until the 2020’s, this was very much in-person meetings, conferences, seminars, courses, symposia, workshops and video conferencing.

Laterally, EUROPARC advanced the use of online opportunities, giving an even greater ability for members to connect, albeit in a slightly constrained manner. A combination of in person and online means of connecting offers the optimal solution and, increasingly, new opportunities for sharing, learning and networking.

EUROPARC created the European Nature Academy in 2022, as a dynamic online space.

It’s an innovative tailor-made training hub designed to help Natura 2000 and Protected Area managers achieve their priorities for nature, with relevant learning opportunities, knowledge hub, communications tools, networking, as well as a training needs analysis.

BECAUSE

NATURE

KNOWS NO

BOUNDARIES

FUTURE

PROTECTION &

CONSERVATION

OF NATURE

INTO THE

FUTURE

INTERNATIONAL

CO-OPERATION