#HabitatHeroes Pioneers

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Meet the Coast Care Young Rangers, Northumberland AONB

The Northumberland coast in the Northeast of England offers very diverse and important habitats for thousands of plants and animals. One of the reasons it has been designated as an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ (AONB). A lot of the habitats only exist due to continued human activity – others haven’t changed much since the end of the ice age.

Tell us all about your “natural treasure”: Which are the species or habitats Coast Care Young Rangers learn and work with? What is special about it?

On the Northumberland Coast whinstone is a strong feature in the landscape. It is a dolerite, igneous rock and in the AONB this formation is called the “Whin Sill”. This rock and the shallow, lime rich and drought prone soil that surrounds it, forms an extraordinary habitat for specialised vegetation and floral communities. Every spring you get to watch seabirds arriving to the offshore islands, whinstone cliffs and some of the beaches. In summer time you will find more than 140,000 breeding pairs of seabirds – with around 40,000 pairs of puffin on the so called Farne Islands. On the beach at the “Long Nanny” you can observe the very rare little tern and arctic terns – the National Trust Rangers make sure they are safe there.

What are Coast Care Young Rangers doing to learn more and protect their natural treasures?

November was a pretty active month for the Coast Care Young Rangers of the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They took some hands-on conservation action around Whin Sill – one of the UK’s, most significant geological features! They cleared parts of the area from gorse, which is vital to help wild flowers grow. 

Besides working hard, they learned about small animals in the region of the Hauxley Nature Reserve. Together with experts from the reserve, they went to do some bird watching and spotted big rats besides different species of birds. They even went to collect and examine bones of voles and mice and owls that day! 

Learn more about the Coast Care Young Rangers from Northumberland AONB on their website and make sure you also check their Facebook page from time to time!

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How to learn more and keep track of #HabitatHeroes campaign activities?

Over the rest of 2018 and throughout 2019 we will “map the field” and raise awareness for the great work Junior Ranger groups are currently doing for threatened flora, fauna and habitats in Protected Areas and Natura 2000 sites in particular.

  • Visit the “Habitat Heroes” campaign website: For now, we are thrilled to introduce you to our Habitat Hero campaign pioneers – groups already taking action in 2018. You will find a growing map and overview of all Junior Ranger groups joining the campaign  over 2019.
  • Besides, you will meet our “Habitat Heroes” over the upcoming months in dedicated articles – make sure you follow our news!
  • Keep an eye on social media – the #HabitatHeroes will provide you with exciting updates from our Junior Ranger groups that take part in the campaign. Don’t forget to share their actions!
  • European Day of Parks – 24th May 2019 – will  be all about “Our Natural Treasures” and our Junior Rangers are all invited to run a “Habitat Heroes” conservation activity dedicated to the natural treasure of their Protected Areas.

Want to join the campaign? We are happy to learn about your conservation action – just drop us a mail: f.minozzi_at_europarc.org

Implementing the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto across Europe

Photo: Alan Smith (Cairngorms National Park); Seed and germ: Samantha Biebl (Bavarian Forest National Park)

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The seeds were sown – Initiatives are growing

Enthusiasm about the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto remains unbroken. The young ambassadors calling for change in Rural Communities and Protected Areas keep receiving invitations to present the Manifesto at conferences, to share it in board meetings of their parks, to hand it over to local politicians and to discuss it with peers in schools. Besides, first commitments to implement the Manifesto – in parts or fully – are made by parks!

EUROPARC Youth Manifesto ambassadors Ethan Tizzard, Cat Edwards, Matthew Boal from Pembrokeshire National Park (UK) are presenting the Manifesto to school pupils © Tom Moses, Discovery Ranger at Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority

High time for a quick overview of what is happening with the Manifesto all over Europe…

… Yorkshire Dales National Park, UK

Inspired by the first Youth Manifesto planning workshop this May, project participants Katy Foxford (communications apprentice with Yorkshire Dales National Park, YDNP) and Ian Colledge (Ranger at YDNP) initiated the set up of a Youth Forum – a first implementing action of the Manifesto before it was even released. Now, 7 months later, YDNP Authority has formally and fully committed itself to listening to young people – giving them a chance to take the lead: Katy and Ian had presented the Youth Manifesto to the National Park Authority and highlighted actions they could take to further connect with local schools and youth clubs, and to bring young people’s ideas to decision makers. Katy Foxford stressed:  “The manifesto is an urgent call to action. Here in the Yorkshire Dales National Park there is a declining population of the younger generation. Yet we need young people to live and work here to create sustainable communities for the future. For that to happen, we need to make sure these rural areas are places of opportunity for young people. This is where the importance of the Youth Manifesto comes in. It sets out potential solutions to the multitude of problems young people face.”

Afterwards members voted unanimously to fully adopt the Europarc Youth Manifesto over the upcoming months.T he Authority’s Deputy Chairman, Jocelyn Manners-Armstrong, told the meeting:  “I think this is great. We all talk about how we want to involve young people, and how we care about the next generation and want to attract young people to the area, but we don’t have any mechanism for getting the information and opinions from young people to us.” The Authority’s Chief Executive, David Butterworth, said:  “Getting the voice of young people heard in rural areas remains a real challenge but the adoption of the Youth Manifesto today is a step in the right direction. It is pleasing to see the ideas around better connecting communities to their environment and future sustainability. The challenge for older generations is to help make this happen or get out of the way to allow others to deliver a better future.”

The YDNP is the first Protected Area committing  officially to fully adopt the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto – a bold and inspirational example to learn from. We will keep you posted about the experiences of Yorkshire Dales NP staff and community implementing change! Read on: Article by Yorkshire Dales NP

… Julian Prealps Nature Park, Italy

EUROPARC Youth Manifesto project participant and active Youth+ member, Leonardo Cerno from the Julian Prealps Nature Park, was invited to speak at the conference of “Federparchi” – the Italian EUROPARC section. He shared the Youth Manifesto with delegates and asked them to take the Manifesto home as an inspiration and practical tool to engage with their local youth. To encourage delegates with concrete ideas, Leonardo presented the example of the Youth Advisory Board he just set up this summer with peers in his park. They plan to engage closely in transboundary activities and projects with young people from Triglav National Park and the Bavarian Forest National Park. Besides Leonardo was invited to speak at the conference “Young Ideas for the Alps! GaYA Conference on Youth Participation and Governance” in France this November.

… Cairngorms National Park, UK

Chris Faulk, Bob Cairns and Jackson Ratcliffe presented the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto at Cairngorms Business Partnership Conference, November 2018

The area of Cairngorms National Park – the park where the Youth Manifesto was partly written and launched during EUROPARC Conference 2018 – has some very active ambassadors around. In October, Chris Faulk, Jackson Ratcliffe and Bob Cain presented the Manifesto at the annual Cairngorms Business Partnership Conference, this year all about “Inspiring young people to build a future in the National Park”. Following this, they were invited to give an interview for ‘Out and About’, a weekly program about community projects by the local “SpeySound Radio”. Jackson and Bob did a fantastic job sharing how the Manifesto came together, reporting what ambassadors are working on across Europe to help parks and communities implement it. They called on all listeners of the show to follow the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto website and Facebook page to keep up to date with activities – or to take action themselves!

…Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, UK

Youth Manifesto ambassador Luke Vogan had the opportunity to present the manifesto to Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. He discussed the issues mapped out in the Manifesto with staff and the newly established Youth Committee – “a great bunch of young people, very eager, very inspirational!”, as Luke found. He hopes to have sparked some ideas and is looking forward to see the difference they’ll make in their Park with the Manifesto as an inspiration for change.

…Youth LEADER project “Nuoriso”, Finland

Representatives of the youth branch of the Finish Leader programme “Nuoriso” presented the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto at their national meeting of rural development organizations. They received great feedback and have meanwhile produced a Finish version of the Manifesto to make it more accessible to local decision-makers and communities.

…Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, UK

Youth Rangers and Manifesto ambassadors Ethan Tizzard, Cat Edwards and Matthew Boal have presented the Manifesto to 6th formers in the biggest school in Pembrokeshire this October. Soon after they had the opportunity to introduce the Manifesto to Pembrokeshire National Park Committee and even reached an agreement on creating a working group to identify and prioritise possible actions moving forward. The statement from the YRs: “We presented the Youth Manifesto to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority committee at the National Park headquarters in Pembroke Dock. We were really nervous but managed to do a really great job! The Committee congratulated us on the Manifesto and our presentation, but we were after something a little more concrete to help move things forward. The Authority agreed to create a working group (some Authority Members and us) to come together, identify and prioritise more ideas for future discussions with the board (which is what we wanted!) Woop Woop!” 

…Weerribben-Wieden National Park, Netherlands

Last week, the Europarc Youth Manifesto was handed over to Carola Schouten, Dutch Minister of Agriculture and Nature. Well done to the young ambassadors who represented three programme initiatives championing young people at once: The Youth Manifesto, EUROPARC Youth+ and the EUROPARC Junior Rangers (Weerribben-Wieden, Dutch JR programme). The Dutch version of the Manifesto has also just been launched and is now available for download.

…EU European Commission, Brussels

by Corentin Béchade – own image, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52673176

The EUROPARC Youth Manifesto also aroused some interest at EU level: In the beginning of this month, EUROPARC Youth Representative Laura Peters, on behalf of the youth from across Europe, presented the Manifesto to Humberto Delgado Rosa, Director for Natural Capital at the EU Commission Directorate General for the Environment. Having read the call for change, he assured:

You can be sure that we will take the Manifesto into account, it will be on our mind for our policies – because, what are we doing here, if not preparing better futures for our younger generations.

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These are just some of the many first examples for the tireless – and increasingly successful – efforts the young ambassadors are taking to promote the implementation of the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto. Make sure you follow the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto Project on Social Media and check the Youth Manifesto Website & EUROPARC news page regularly to keep up to date!

If you are interested and have an idea to implement the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto in your Protected Area and/or community – do get in touch via youth_at_europarc.org 

“Let’s protect our million stars hotel we call Home” – A Christmas Message

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A Christmas Message by EUROPARC President, Ignace Schops

Ho, ho, ho …!

Ignace Schops at the Conference in Ireland 2014 © Don MacMonagle

Jingle bells, Jingle bells … The end of 2018 is near, so for many of us, it is time to look back and reflect. As president of EUROPARC Federation, I can proudly say that as Federation we did well! Our membership grew, our projects, seminars and webinars were successful. Promising is our increased influence at the EU-level. Our experience and expertise are highly valued. And our annual conference in the Cairngorms National Park was outstanding. Thank you to the Cairngorms National Park Authority and all the members and partners who helped us to achieve a remarkable year. Last but not least a big thank you for the joint forces of the council and an excellent work of the directorate.

Alarm bells, alarm bells … 2018 was also the year where all the alarms went off!

Again! Heat waves, hurricanes, floodings, … There were again clear signals we are losing our comfort zone. With biodiversity loss and the collapsing ecosystems, we are destroying where we depend on. And apparently, the world leaders hesitate to take concrete action.

The discussions and outcomes of the COP 14 on the Convention on Biological Diversity in Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt, were nearly covered in the press.  Pașca Palmer, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said:

The loss of biodiversity is a silent killer. Yet there is growing evidence that the crisis of the natural world has become as much of a threat to humankind and is amplifying the chaos in the world’s weather systems.

The special report “Global Warming of 1.5°C” was very clear.  A half of a degree less, makes a world of difference”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Unless we become climate neutral by 2050, we will face severe problems. 

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require “unprecedented” transitions. Sadly, his words were not heard widely. The Climate COP 24 in Katowice wasn’t a success. Big nations are hesitating and don’t show a higher ambition to save ourselves and all the living species from the brink of extinction. An extra COP in September 2019 in New York will be crucial.

Launch of EUROPARC Youth Manifesto at EUROPARC Conference 2018, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

A message of hope

Refreshing and heartwarming was the intervention and respond of our children, the youth, the “next generation”. At our conference in the Cairngorms, we welcomed the “EUROPARC Youth Manifesto”, their view on the future! Yes, we need to believe in the next generations and give them everything we have!

In Katowice the 15-year-old Swedish Greta Thunberg made a fantastic and breathtaking speech, urging the world leaders to act and protect our precious planet, the million stars hotel we live in!  It is what you do, not what you say!

Let’s listen to the next generation and let’s protect were we depend on!

Merry Chrismas & Happy New Year!

Santa Schops, your president

 

#HabitatHeroes Pioneers

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Meet the Lake Pfaeffikon Junior Rangers

©Yannick Bucher

With Lake Pfaeffikon, Junior Rangers can call a very special place their “natural treasure”.

~ Input: Lake Pfaeffikon Junior Ranger Blog.

Tell us all about your “natural treasure”: Which is the species or habitat you Lake Pfeaffikon Junior Rangers learn about and work with in their Protected Area? What is special about it?

Lake Pfaeffikon is the 2nd biggest lake right after Lake Greifensee and besides, it’s also the one holding the clearest water in the whole Swiss “Kanton” (kind of “federal state”) of Zurich. It is one of the most important and one of the largest wetlands and nature reserves of the Swiss plateau (Mittelland). The Lake and moorland in its surroundings provide a valuable habitat for a broad diversity of flora, fauna, insects and birds. That’s why the area counts as a real biodiversity hotspot.

What are Junior Rangers are doing to learn more and protect their natural treasures?

It is very important, that visitors who come to enjoy the area understand how valuable Lake Pfaeffikon is as a habitat. The Junior Rangers decided to help there and took action. This summer they set up an information stall together with two associations for nature protection -“Pfaeffikon” and “Natur liegt nahe” (“Nature is close to us”) – and spent the full day informing interested people about some species living around their lake and about how they can be protected. A group of dedicated Habitat Heroes!

©Yannick Bucher

At the Junior Ranger stall visitors could learn about the grass snake, stork and egret. Of course, the young rangers didn’t just give information in a boring way. They brought a fun quiz game and challenged people with some tricky questions about Lake Pfaeffikon and the Junior Ranger Programme.

Educating visitors is important – and so is hands-on action. Also here Junior Rangers at Lake Pfaeffikon are very engaged: In June they went out for their annual “Lake clean up” to free some parts of the lake from metal litter with self-made angles. And see what incredible “fish” they caught:

©Yannick Bucher

©Yannick Bucher

Lake Pfaeffikon Junior Rangers had a summer with great fun, but also, they had to say goodbye to their long-standing mentor Yannick Bucher. Luckily they could get him to promise a visit…and luckily the group already has found a new mentor: Tobias Klein, welcome! We are already looking forward to the new Habitat Hero actions from Lake Pfaeffikon Junior Rangers in 2019!

Lake Pfaeffikon Junior Ranger programme is part of the Swiss “Greifensee Stiftung”. Learn more about the Lake Pfaeffikon Habitat Heroes  on their (German) blog and follow them on Facebook

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How to learn more and keep track of #HabitatHeroes campaign activities?

Over the rest of 2018 and throughout 2019 we will “map the field” and raise awareness for the great work Junior Ranger groups are currently doing for threatened flora, fauna and habitats in Protected Areas and Natura 2000 sites in particular.

  • Visit the “Habitat Heroes” campaign website: For now, we are thrilled to introduce you to our Habitat Hero campaign pioneers – groups already taking action in 2018. You will find a growing map and overview of all Junior Ranger groups joining the campaign  over 2019.
  • Besides, you will meet our “Habitat Heroes” over the upcoming months in dedicated articles – make sure you follow our news!
  • Keep an eye on social media – the #HabitatHeroes will provide you with exciting updates from our Junior Ranger groups that take part in the campaign. Don’t forget to share their actions!
  • European Day of Parks – 24th May 2019 – will  be all about “Our Natural Treasures” and our Junior Rangers are all invited to run a “Habitat Heroes” conservation activity dedicated to the natural treasure of their Protected Areas.

Want to join the campaign? We are happy to learn about your conservation action – just drop us a mail: f.minozzi_at_europarc.org