Register now for “Little Sydney: Protecting Nature in Europe” conference!

Little Sydney © IUCN

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28 – 31 May: “Little Sydney: Protecting Nature in Europe”; Donau-Auen National Park (AU)

IUCN and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), in conjunction with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water, and the Donau-Auen National Park, will organize a conference entitled “Little Sydney: Protecting Nature in Europe”.

The conference will be held in Hainburg/Donau-Auen National Park, Austria and will discuss, share and showcase original approaches for conservation and development arising from the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014; and facilitate the implementation of the Promise of Sydney in the European context.

The Little Sydney conference is a milestone international event aimed at finding long-term sustainable solutions for Protected Areas in Europe and EUROPARC members are encouraged to participate.

To register and have more information about the conference programme, visit Little Sydney webpage.

EC consultation on Birds & Habitats directives

Natura 2000 Logo

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EUROPARC invites members to answer the EC consultation on Birds and Habitats directives, for the future of the Natura 2000 network.

The two main pieces of EU nature legislation, 1979’s Directive on the conservation of wild birds (Birds Directive) and 1992’s Directive on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive) are currently being evaluated by the European Commission.

As these directives have a clear territorial dimension, the Committee of the Regions is evaluating their impact on the local and regional level. The aim of this consultation is to gather the views of site managers and management authorities of Natura 2000 sites on the implementation and the effects of these directives on the local and regional level.

The consultation will be open from 15th of April to 15th of May included.

The questionnaire would not take more than 5 minutes of your time and it is available in 23 EU languages in form of a short e-survey.

We look forward to your contributions.

Launch of new training programme for Protected Area professionals in Romania

Web platform for online training in DBU project "Increasing education opportunities on sustainable development for Protected Area managers in Romania"

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The DBU funded project Increasing education opportunities on sustainable development for Protected Area managers in Romania, in which EUROPARC has partnered with ProPark Foundation (RO), is entering its next exciting phase.

Today, 27th April, the newly developed training programme for Protected Area professionals, a mix of online and face-to-face sessions, sees its first participants. It seems this offer is striking a chord, with more than 240 applications that came in for only 30 places and scholarships. Twelve diverse topics are covered in the programme, reaching from legal and financial issues relevant for Protected Area management, to the management of sustainable agriculture or wilderness.

The participants start with a set of online training modules. After successfully completing those, they will be invited to two face-to-face training sessions in September and October, each five days. Participants passing the test at the end of the training, will be granted graduation certificates issued by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly and the Ministry of National Education, for the Protected Areas Specialist profession.

A second round of the training for new participants will again be offered in 2016.

”Through this vocational training programme participants will acquire knowledge and skills for the efficient administration of natural protected areas, for promoting them as model areas for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources as well as for increasing the level of acceptance of Protected Areas among communities and the public”, says Georgiana Andrei, project manager with ProPark.

Read more about the project, its aims and activities here.

EUROPARC Federation amongst applicants in new Interreg programmes

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A wave of interest hits the 2014-2020 Interreg programmes

The new Interreg programmes Alpine Space and CENTRAL EUROPE closed their first calls recently and received a wave of expressions of interests for the first step of the application process. More than 200 light application forms were submitted to the Alpine Space and 620 to the CENTRAL EUROPE programme. Until 2020 around 140 million Euros (Alpine Space) and 80 million Euros (CENTRAL EUROPE) will be made available for projects in these regions.

“We are pleased that the first call of the new Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme attracted such huge interest all over central Europe,” said Christiane Breznik from the managing authority in the City of Vienna. “It shows that the programme addresses relevant challenges and needs of the programme area. Private organisations are well represented among the submitted proposals, with 37 percent of applicants coming from the private sector.”

EUROPARC together with Federparchi-EUROPARC Italy and other partners submitted two projects with a focus on sustainable tourism development, one to the Alpine Space and one to the CENTRAL EUROPE programme. Another project was submitted to the CENTRAL EUROPE programme in partnership with the Western Pomerania Regional Landscape Parks (PL) as well as member and non-member parks of EUROPARC on fostering transboundary cooperation in Protected Areas in Germany and Eastern Europe. We very much look forward to the outcomes of the first step of application process, which we will expect for September this year.

For those of our members situated in North and West Europe, the call for Interreg North West Europe programme is still open. Deadline is 18th May.