Dissolution of EUROPARC Consulting GmbH

Dear Member,
As many of you are aware, the EUROPARC Federation founded EUROPARC Consulting over 12 years ago. In that time the Consulting company grew in its reach and expertise, proving high quality consultancy to EUROPARC members and others, developing the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas and providing financial support to the Federation.

EUROPARC Consulting has been managed initially by Rachel Wieting (DE) who did an excellent job in the set up phase, and continued to assist in bookkeeping and assisting Wilf Fenten, who took over as managing Director. He has managed Consulting in an exemplary fashion, with support from Anne Webster (UK). EUROPARC Consulting was chaired initially by the late Aitken Clark and laterally by Richard Partington with support from the advisory board from Hans Schiphorst (NL), Norbert Heukemes (BE), Richard Blackman (UK) and input from the Federation’s presidents and directors over the years.

However the economic downturn has taken its toll. The pressure on the Federation to maintain its financial viability has impacted on Consulting. As well as Consulting itself laterally struggling to win contracts in a crowded market, has meant that, with reluctance, the Federation has decided to close the operations of EUROPARC Consulting GmbH through liquidation.

There is no specific requirement within the EUROPARC statutes to deal with this circumstance and given the speed of actions needed, the EUROPARC council decided to mandate the President to take all and necessary actions. The legal advice provided was to liquidate the company as the Federation itself could not support financially Consulting’s operations.

Therefore we will begin the process of liquidation as of 25th April 2015 and appoint a liquidator to close the company under German law.

I want to pay tribute to all the consultants who have provided their expertise, to the advisory board for the long service and sterling work, but mostly pay tribute to Wilf Fenten who had ably managed Consulting well above and beyond his duty.

We are sad to lose a part of our EUROPARC family, but tough times have required tough decisions. We aim to remain in touch with consultants who have developed the protected area expertise you, our members, may require, so that body of work is not lost.

I hope you appreciate that action was necessary swiftly, but council will provide a full report in the general assembly on 27th October in Regensburg to which you are warmly invited, and I hope we will meet. Look out for more information about the conference and general assembly next month.

In the meantime, if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me or indeed, I am sure, the headquarters will be able to address your queries.

Yours,

Ignace Schops
President EUROPARC Federation

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