EUROPARC 2009
100 years of National Parks in Europe. A shared inheritance; A common future
Three Hundred people from 30 countries gathered from 8th – 13th September to celebrate 100 years of nature conservation at the annual EUROPARC Federation conference, hosted last week by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in Strömstad, Sweden.
The conference was fittingly preceded by a High-Level Ministerial meeting, “Visions for Biodiversity beyond 2010 - People, Ecosystem Services and the Climate Crisis” and the inauguration of two transboundary national parks: Kosterhavet National Park, a marine national park in Sweden, and Ytre Hvaler National Park in Norway causing more press attention than usual for the conference.
Against this background around 300 individuals working in the field of protected area management or nature conservation enjoyed the great opening ceremony (attended by the King of Sweden on Wednesday 9th). The following morning enthralling keynote speeches from Achmed Djolaf , Pavan Sukdev, Tamas Marghescu, Peter Westman and Gordan Miller inspired and stimulated the delegates. These were then followed by a moving presentation by Kristin Biebel from the Bavarian Forest National Park (DE) about the EUROPARC Junior Ranger Network.
The highlight of the conference for many was the Gala-Dinner on the Saturday evening where we were treated to a performance by an Abba Tribute Band. The delegates were out of their seats and dancing around the tables even before the meal was finished. And the mood and dancing continued late into the night…
Further information
More photos can be viewed at: http://karinbjork.se/europarc-staff. The English conference programme can be download below for reference.
Read more about the excursions and about the workshops including the feedback from them by navigating through the page of conference presentations.
The complete report of the conference can be found on the right of this page.
Gallery
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