For those whose parks or N2000 sites are/were affected by quarrying:

EUROPARC will be working with Sibelco, a sand quarrying company to look at some of the challenges of mitigating quarrying activities, especially for biodiversity. 

We are looking for 5 members with experience of this who would be willing to work with EUROPARC and Sibelco to establish protocols, partnership and guidance for sites that have some impacts from the quarrying industry.

We need good case studies and volunteers from inside the EUROPARC membership.

A free workshop/technical meeting will be held in Belgium on 18/19th April.

If you are interested in sharing your experience and joining the workshop, please:

• contact EUROPARC to b.pais @ europarc.org with the topic “Quarrying in Parks”
• send a short description of the quarrying activities that take/took place in your Protected Area
• briefly tell us how your experience might be relevant to other Parks across Europe. 

Feel free to share it with your colleagues across Europe. Together, let’s minimize impacts and support parks and companies better protecting our landscape and biodiversity values.

On February 1, just on the brink of World Wetlands Day, a special celebration was held in the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional development of the Republic of Latvia

The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas Certificate was handed over to Ķemeri National Park (“Ķemeru nacionālais parks”) – a true wetlands park, comprising one out of the 6 Ramsar sites in Latvia.

Present during the event were Kaspars Gerhards, Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development and Juris Jātnieks, Director General of Nature Conservation Agency –public authority responsible for management of all PAs in Latvia.

The ceremony would have been incomplete without the presence of the KNP tourism forum – this time represented by resort rehabilitation centre “Jaunķemeri” , recreation centre “Valguma Pasaule”  and local guide and souvenir producer Jānis Šlūke.

ECSTPA New Logotype. Existing in 5 languages – also in Latvian.

During the discussions the participants stressed the role of the Charter as the driving force for involvement of all stakeholders and the key to finding the right balance between preserving natural heritage and sustainable economic activity.

Everybody reiterated their determination and eagerness to continue the good work together towards excellence in sustainable tourism and development.It was already the second time Ķemeri NP was awarded the Charter.

The ceremony held in the Latvian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional development was a great opportunity to allow more of the people involved in the Charter process to come together and celebrate their common success and find it acknowledged at national level.

For more information on the celebration held in the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional development of the Republic of Latvia, please get in touch with Agnese Balandina (agnese.balandina_at_daba.gov.lv, Nature Conservation Agency, Pierīga Regional Administration, Manager of Nature Education Centre).

EUROPARC congratulates Kemeri National Park to this successful event and its re-awarding.

Back in December 2017, the official Charter Award Ceremony, hosted by the European Parliament and EUROPARC Federation, took place in Brussels and gathered all Protected Areas of the Charter Family that were (re-)awarded last year.  Find here photos and the final report on the Charter Award Ceremony 2017.

These days European Commission is working on proposals for the EU Budget post-2020. PA managers are called to give their input to match financial priority setting with needs on the ground.

The next Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) will set priorities for investments in the context of growing challenges for the EU, and increasing competition for resources between the various policy areas where action needs to be taken. The Commission has launched several on-line public consultations to collect views of all the interested parties and citizens to identify on how to best allocate EU budget to Funds and Programmes. The results of the consultations will inform the preparation of the Commission’s proposals.

As key stakeholders involved in the management of cohesion policy, the European Commission wishes to encourage Protected Area managers, authorities and their partners, to take part in the public consultation on cohesion policy in order to share their views on how to shape the future of this policy.

Have your say:  Promote PA perspectives in the consultation on Cohesion Funds. Public consultations close by the 8th of March!

You can do so simply by responding to the online questionnaire. Please consider that the questionnaire  is accessible in all EU languages.

This introduction will give you some background on the consultation.

Feel free to disseminate further the information regarding this public consultation among your networks, including among direct beneficiaries of cohesion policy.

Your input will be highly appreciated and help the Commission design an effective cohesion policy for the coming decade.

On 31st of January and 1st of February, EUROPARC participated in the 8th meeting of the Green Infrastructure and Restoration (GIR) Working Group (WG) in Brussels.

The GIR Working Group is led by the European Commission (DG ENVI) and includes representatives of Member States and NGOs. EUROPARC is involved in this WG as a member of the European Habitat Forum (EHF).

Objectives of this meeting was to share experiences and visions on

• how to develop strategic EU level Green Infrastructure projects
• how to integrate ecosystem services in planning and decision-making

How can the ecosystem service approach help protect biodiversity & how to achieve consideration of the non-monetary values of ecosystem services into EU decision-making? View the video by EU Commission DG Environment below,  introducing its “Science for Environment Policy” In-Depth Report on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity.

During the first day, the European Commission presented its recently published technical report on ‘’Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services’’ (MAES). It provides an integrated analytical framework and set of indicators for mapping and assessing the condition of ecosystems in the EU and proves a useful instrument for Member States to map and assess the state of ecosystems and their services in their respective national territories.

The second day was devoted to the wider Green Infrastructure debate, and how EU supports the deployment of EU-level Green Infrastructure through financing instruments, such as LIFE,  Cohesion funds (presented by DG REGIO),  Rural Development funds (illustrated by DG AGRI) and Horizon 2020 (DG Research and Innovation).

Learn more about EU funding, policies and research related to Green Infrastructure here.