What we do

Europe's protected areas - its national parks, nature parks, and biosphere reserves - play a vital role in safeguarding the continent's nature, its wildlife and landscapes. They protect Europe's most special places: relatively untouched landscapes, as well as those which have been shaped by centuries of man's interaction with the land. They offer refuge to the species and ecosystems which represent the very basis of future life. And they help to preserve the natural beauty of Europe in all its variety for us to experience and enjoy. They are our life-support system

Helping protected areas to fulfil this role, encouraging cooperation and exchange between protected area staff, and promoting their aims and work across Europe is the purpose of the EUROPARC Federation. We fulfil our aims though a large variety of activities which you can read about in these pages. Use the menu to the right or the links below to find out more.

In 2009 we celebrated 100 years of national parks in Europe with our members and produced a book and an exhibition. We also joined the project, PAME, looking at the effectiveness of protected area evaluation. In addition we continued being partners in the Wild Europe Initiative. The training programme NatuRegio reached its final year but EUROPARC, together with the programmes other partners, are looking at extending it.

Our long-term programmes the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, the Junior Ranger Programme and the Transboundary Parks certification scheme are still going strong and are increasingly successful. Our portal for internships in protected areas www.workingfornature.org is also still running.

We continue to award three new Alfred Toepfer Scholarships to young conservationists and the Alfred Toepfer Medal to an individual who has shown particular committment to Europes protected areas each year. We also continue to promote the European Day of Parks each May and host our successful annual conference every autumn.

For 2010 there are a number of outstanding projects that the EUROPARC Federation will be supporting which we are waiting to hear about. We also hope to have many new developments in those projects mentioned above. Keep up-to-date with our activities by reading our monthly e-news.