EUROPARC Atlantic Isles

Yorkshire Dales National Park (UK) © Hilary Fenten

EUROPARC Atlantic islesYear of creation: 1991

Number of members: 45

The core areas of work: Personal Development and learning, Health, marine protected areas

Website: www.europarc-ai.org

Contact person: Anita Prosser, anita.prosser at europarc-ai.org

President: Tim Duckmanton, Lake District National Park.

About their work

EUROPARC Atlantic Isles brings together organisations and individuals, who manage protected areas in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland. We are a section of the EUROPARC Federation. Our members bring with them a wealth of experience and expertise from national parks, regional parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, local authorities, government agencies and non-governmental organisations.

We aim to use our strong European and international connections to promote good practice and policy in protected area management, for the benefit of the public. Our objectives are:

  1. To promote good practice and contribute to the effectiveness of protected area management by bringing together all those involved in their management – to share experience and solve common challenges;
  2. To organise training and the sharing of good practice in protected area management through seminars, conferences, newsletters, and on line channels;
  3. To raise the profile and value of protected areas within all sections of society, thereby influencing public policy for their benefit;
  4. To ensure our continued relationship with the wider European network of protected landscapes to facilitate knowledge sharing and relationships between EAI members whatever future political outcomes are;
  5. To become a resilient organisation with the human and financial resources necessary to meet the expectations of our members, and represent their views to the Europarc Federation;

Our work programme is centred on training through networking and the exchange of expertise in the management of protected landscapes. As part of the EUROPARC Federation, EAI is able to integrate the European dimension to this work, bringing in experts from other European countries to participate in the EAI seminar series, as well as facilitating member participation in pan-European projects and programmes.

EAI has developed a Protected Area Learning Programme, which brings together different means of sharing information, experience and good practice in cost-effective ways. These have included E-News, webinars and thematic networks. We have also been successful in securing Erasmus + funding over several years and able to provide funded learning study tours across Europe for our members.

There is also a growing recognition of the value of the natural environment for positive health benefits. An increasing number of protected areas are working with the health sector on health projects.