Join the Programme

Soca trail in Triglav National Park (SI) © Triglav National Park Authority

Who can participate?

The application is open to European protected areas involved in transfrontier cooperation. Organisations, ministries and other partners supporting the transfrontier cooperation are eligible to initiate an application. All applications should, however, be made with the full agreement of the protected areas concerned.

All applying parties must be full members of the EUROPARC Federation.

Your protected area is not a member yet?

Please apply first for the membership with the EUROPARC Federation. Once our Council decided about your membership application, you are welcome to also register as candidate for the EUROPARC Transboundary Parks Programme.

Registration and application

Protected areas interested in the certification firstly need to formally register with the EUROPARC Headquarters. To do so, please fill in the registration form, that can be found on this website. Please email this to stefania(.)petrosillo@europarc.org and also send by post to the EUROPARC Federation Waffnergasse 6, 93047 Regensburg, Germany. At this point the registration fee will also have to be transferred to EUROPARC.

After registration the protected areas will be sent the detailed document Manual-Guidelines for protected areas, which accompanies the EUROPARC Transboundary Parks Programme. The manual sets out how protected areas can work towards certification, guiding them through the basic standards and evaluation process. It contains all of the information and forms required by the applicant to complete each stage of the verification.

1. An introduction to the EUROPARC Transboundary Parks Programme

2. A description and timetable for the application and evaluation process

3. The Basic Standards

4. Detailed Application forms

Read the documents thoroughly. They provide background information on the journey that you are to embark upon.

The next step for you is to work through the basic standards, assessing what has already been achieved and where action is still required to improve transboundary cooperation and meet the standards. With the information collected, you and your partner protected area(s) should fill in the application form together and send it to EUROPARC for evaluation. At this point the application fee will also need to be transferred to the Federation.

If EUROPARC decide that the application forms are complete the verification procedure begins. Please see the section on the verification process for more information on this.

Fees

Protected area administrations applying for the EUROPARC Transboundary Certificate are required to pay a registration fee in the first step and an application fee to cover the basic administrative costs and the costs of the verification process related to their application in the second step. Details can be found in the document Conditions & Costs.

In addition to these fees payable to EUROPARC the applicant parks are required to cover all costs directly related to the field evaluation mission, except consultancy fees and international travel costs of the EUROPARC verifiers. This includes transfer costs for the verifiers to and from the nearest airport or railway to the TBPA location, their accommodation, food and local travel during the field evaluation mission within the TBPA.

Information on the application process, conditions and costs related can be found in the documents at the end of this page.

Contact us (stefania.petrosillo@europarc.org) for more information.