European Charter for Sustainable Tourism at Expo Milano 2015

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European Charter for sustainable tourism © EUROPARC Federation

European Charter for sustainable tourism © EUROPARC Federation

On the 9th September, Federparchi – EUROPARC Italy and the Italian Ministry of the Environment organized a seminar at EXPO Milano about the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas (ECST) entitled “The Charter as a tool and certification for nature conservation, land management and dialogue between Parks, local businesses and tour operators” (La carta come strumento e certificazione per la tutela della natura, lo sviluppo del territorio e il dialogo tra parchi, imprese locali e tour operator).

Paulo Castro, council member of EUROPARC Federation, made a presentation about the Strategy of EUROPARC regarding the ECTS,  Javier Gomez Limón from EUROPARC Spain and Julia Steiner from EUROPARC France made a presentation about the 2nd and 3rd phases of the Charter, respectively.

Giampero Sammuri, President of Federparchi, highlighted the importance of the ECST for the Italian Protected Areas:

 (ECST) improves sustainable development and tourism management of protected areas, taking into account the necessities of the environment, local communities, business entrepreneurship and visitors.

Further information about the event can be found at Federparchi – EUROPARC Italy website and the presentations can be downloaded below.

Sheep farmers detained staff members of La Vanoise National Park (FR)

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3 staff members of the French National Park Vanoise have been held hostage by sheep farmers

The president, the Director and other staff members of La Vanoise National Park have been held hostage since the evening of the 1st of September by about 50 sheep farming representatives of the French community of Bramans, during 15 hours.

The sheep farmers are demanding further measures from the French government to protect their herds against wolf attacks:  they want a shooting permit in case of acute attacks on herds, as well as an additional shooting permit for 5 more wolves in the Department of Savoie until the end of the year, including in the core zone of the National Park.

Even though the return of the wolf to the French Alps brings with it a number of problems for the ranchers that have to be taken seriously, the farmers´ current method of undue deprivation of freedom is totally unacceptable.  No occupational group has the right to act this way.

The National Park administrators and staff of Alpine protected areas take the concerns of ranchers very seriously.  However, for a regulation of wildlife even outside protected areas there have to be clear guidelines on how to ensure a viable population status and on unreasonable damages occur despite the presence of herd protection measures.

France has one of the best developed and probably most coherent National Park concepts in all of Europe, which is distinguished in particular by the strict and efficient protection of core zones. This protection must not be weakened, or the credibility of nature protection and of a sustainable nature protection policy could be jeopardized.

EUROPARC expresses its profound support to La Vanoise National Park.

Information provided by Alparc

Tourism For Tomorrow Awards 2016

Tourism fo Tomorrow Award 2016. WTTC

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Recently the EUROPARC Federation and World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) renewed an important  agreement as a great example of partnership oriented to sustainable tourism development. The WTTC is committed to promoting sustainability in the Travel & Tourism industry and the Tourism for tomorrow awards aims at recognising best practice in sustainable tourism within the industry globally.

They have just informed us that the applications to the 12th Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are now open! The deadline is the 16th of November 2015 no fee is charged for submitting your application. Find more about the award and the work of WTTC here!

They are looking for inspiring businesses and organisations from Travel & Tourism sector who feel they have what it takes, are encouraged to enter one of the five award categories for next year:  Community, Destination, Environment, Innovation and People.

Find more about the award and the work of WTTC here and watch the winners of 2015 edition in this video.