Photographer: Sebastian Freiler @ EUROPARC Conference 2022 in Austria
About the Commission
Designation and existence of Protected Areas is just a first step. Even more important is to manage them effectively, regularly check the outcomes and adapt plans if needed.
It is important to monitor and assess the management effectiveness of Protected Areas to keep track of the progresses and achievements and use an adaptive management approach, to make necessary adjustments.
On one hand this topic is quite well developed in Europe – Protected Areas management authorities use various methods to evaluate management effectiveness (METT, RAPPAM, PAME, European Diploma, IUCN Green List, etc.). On the other hand, none of those approaches is recognised as the common one with general applicability across Europe (both in and outside of the EU). In addition, results of such exercises give answers mainly at an administrative level. For example, as most PAs do have a management plan, the outcome of such evaluation is usually positive. Yet, the level of biodiversity continues to decrease due to a lack of systematic approach covering administrative, planning, and implementation parts of the process.
The EUROPARC Management Effectiveness Commission (EMEC) is established to utilise knowledge and experience of the EUROPARC network – including partners – and develop a PAs Management Effectiveness Guide fitting to European conditions and carry out its pilot use.
Management effectiveness of Protected Areas is a priority issue for nature conservation. Although Protected Areas are so far the most successful nature conservation tool, in major they fail in halting the loss of biodiversity. One of the reasons for that is a lack of the effectiveness monitoring and its association with management. That is the gap that the Commission is aiming to address.
Members of the Commission
Membership is composed by experts from the EUROPARC network, partner organisations, and individual experts. That will ensure sufficient experience with existing approaches and awareness of expectations from our main partners: European Commission, European Environment Agency, and others.
Members:
- Michael Hošek (EUROPARC Federation Council)
- Leelo Kukk (EUROPARC Federation Council)
- Ben Ross (EUROPARC Atlantic Isles Section, Nature Scot)
- Matti Tapaninen (EUROPARC Nordic-Baltic Section, Metsähallitus)
- Diego Garcia (EUROPARC Spanish Section)
- Elena Osipova (European Environment Agency)
- Erika Stanciu (IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas)
- Micheal O’Brian (expert)
Anticipated results
- Clarification of expectations by our partners (European Commission / European Environment Agency) incl. EUROPARC members consultation (focused on their needs).
- Desktop collation of existing methodological approaches and comparison analyses towards the EUROPARC 2030 and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 needs and expectations.
- Developed recommendations of necessary actions.
- Prepared project proposal for the pilot implementation. To develop new guidance.