A look into 2018: EUROPARC Annual Report 2018

Cairngorms National Park

Published on: 05/05/19

EUROPARC Annual Report 2018

By Ignace Schops, EUROPARC President

Ignace Schops

Today, across Europe, Protected Areas face challenges and pressures unforeseen by our enlightened predecessors. In response, parks of today and tomorrow must see nature, people, culture and community as part of the assets of the area.

We have continued in 2018, as the representative body of Europe’s Protected Areas, to be the collective voice for all nature and landscape areas and we have continued to build a stronger, unifying, European network organisation that is better placed to support our members and to respond to these current and future challenges Europe’s nature is facing.

In particular, we have continued to engage with the European Commission, providing a valuable platform to share directly member’s management experiences, discuss policy developments whilst gaining the perspective of the Commission on the subjects relevant for Protected Areas and Natura 2000 sites. The work of regional parks and particularly of periurban Protected Areas, has been central in these discussions.

The Seminar- Dialogue on European policies, co-organised annually with the DG ENV, is an opportunity to bridge the policy and legislative work in Brussels with experience in the field from EUROPARC members. Read more about it here.

Download EUROPARC Position Paper

EUROPARC too, made a big investment over the year to contribute to the Agriculture Policy development, which would inevitably have a relevant impact for biodiversity in the coming years. The debate over the sustainability of agriculture has also been growing within the Protected Areas network over recent years.

A EUROPARC policy position on agriculture has been developed and published and we continue to develop a European tool for Protected Areas to support them in building partnerships with the farming sector and to promote good practices for a more sustainable agriculture in natural areas.

Finally, a real highlight of the year was the launch of the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto at our conference in Cairngorms National Park, Scotland. The conference itself was peppered with the passion and enthusiasm of our youth calling for Protected Areas to take action in order to ensure young people can live and work in our rural areas, ensuring we retain the living working landscapes that is our European heritage.

Click on the image to Download the Youth Manifesto (English Version)

The Youth Manifesto was an excellent collaboration with youth representative from across Europe. Authenticity of the Manifesto comes from expression of need, issues and solutions being identified by youth. But credibility must come from EUROPARC members developing project plans and implementing actions through adopting solutions from the Youth Manifesto.