Get ready for the European Day of Parks 2022!

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The European Day of Parks (EDoP) is a commemorative day for Protected Areas across Europe that was launched in 1999 by the EUROPARC Federation to celebrate Protected Areas throughout Europe. It celebrates the creation of the 1st National Parks in Europe – a set of nine parks created in Sweden in 1909.

European Day of Parks 2022: WE ARE NATURE – RETHINK, RESTORE, RECONNECT

What would we be without nature? It is part of our very being. We depend on it for our mental and physical health, our food production, the air we breathe… Yet our relationship with nature is out of balance. As a result, we are losing not just natural areas, but also a sense of belonging.

That is why it’s time we rethink, restore and reconnect with nature! This is exactly what we ask you to do this European Day of Parks.

Protected Areas are ideal places for restoring nature AND our connection to it. In an ever urbanised Europe, it is in these places that we can truly ground ourselves and feel that we are part of nature too! As such, we must protect it – now and in the future.

Our Protected Areas are hard at work every day to provide us with beautiful places to reconnect with nature. They are on the ground, restoring nature and conserving these beautiful areas. As such, they provide benefits to the whole of society, so let’s celebrate them!

What can you do?!

EUROPARC asks all its members and the wider network to organize events and activities on and around the 24th of May. You are the key to the success of this year’s European Day of Parks!

Register your events here!

After two year of a mostly digital European Day of Park, we hope that this year we can get people out into our Protected Areas again, to help reconnect our society to nature. Here are some activity ideas to help you get started:

  • Partner up with local schools, in a playful manner help children discover how each of us is connected and dependent on nature. Tip! Reach out to more urban areas where contact with nature is less frequent.
  • Nature is everywhere, we just need to notice it! Organize a tour in your Park and give people handouts with common animals and plants that they can also find in their backyard. Once at home, they can continue the nature discovery.
  • What we eat affects our environment. Is your Park working with sustainable farmers? Set up an event with them, where visitors can see the process of food production up close!
  • Our Protected Areas are actively working on restoring nature, why not create an exhibition with before and after examples of restored natural areas?
  • Or maybe take part in the “Take Care of Your Trails” campaign from IMBA Europe?

If you need some more inspiration, have a look at our guidelines for Parks here:

Guidelines for Parks

You can let your imagination run wild, this day is all about celebrating our Protected Areas. So set up your events and lets reconnect to, rethink and restore nature together!

Promotion Tools in your language!

Download the official poster and web banners to promote your event. This year, it’s also available a poster to personalize with your activities. All in your language!

An automatic download will start when you click over your language. NOTE: All images are in .png format, so you can easily edit them in paint or word.

Croatian  |  Czech  |  Dutch  |  English  |  Estonian  | French  | FinnishGerman  |  Greek  |  Hungarian  |  Italian  |  Latvian  |  Lithuanian  | Norwegian  |  Polish  |  Portuguese  | Romanian | Slovenian  |  Spanish  |  Welsh

If you need a different size or format, don’t hesitate to contact communications@europarc.org.

Download the European Day of Parks logo

If you are not interested in using the official posters, you can also download the logo and use it in your activities. Download contains .PNG and .eps.

Click here

About the European Day of Parks

Imagine a day when all Parks and Protected Areas come together across Europe, celebrate their successes and declare the value and benefits of Europe’s Protected Areas to communities, decision-makers and the wider public. Well, it is EUROPARC’s European Day of Parks!

Every year European Day of Parks takes place on and around 24th of May. It aims to bring people closer to nature and raise public awareness on the importance of the natural beauty preserved in Protected Areas and the importance of conservation and sustainable management of those places.

Check here to see the previous editions.

We need Farm to Fork now more than ever

JACLOU-DL from Pixabay.

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More than 85 NGOs are calling on the European Union to not derail the EU Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies on the false claim that European food security is threatened by the current Russia-Ukraine war.

EUROPARC is a member of the EU Food Policy Coalition. Our role in the Coalition is to strengthen and promote the valuable role terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas play in the production of healthy food. In this context, we support the open letter that over 85 NGOs have submitted to the European Commission. The letter urges that we keep the ambitions high when it comes to Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Targets.

The letter is a response to comments made by Commissioner for Agriculture Wojciechowski, who stated that “if food security is in danger, then we need to have another look at the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy and correct them”.

We believe the contrary to be true:

the crisis in Ukraine is yet another reminder of how essential it is to implement the Green Deal and its Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies.

Both the COVID-19 pandemic and the tragic war in Ukraine that is destroying towns and lives, have also shed light on the weaknesses of the European food system, which requires concrete actions to ensure long-term sustainability.

As stated in the letter: “More than ever, the EU must shift towards healthy, socially and environmentally friendly farming practices, such as agroecology, organic farming, and agroforestry, which provide the only path to ensuring long-term food security, food sovereignty, and the overall sustainability of the food systems. We must turn away from intensive agriculture, industrial fisheries and aquaculture.”

Only through keeping the Farm to Fork strategy and its policies strong, can Europe ensure that we move away from unsustainable practices and move towards secure food for all.

Global food systems will continue to be afflicted by crises and uncertainties over the coming years and decades. By acting responsibly now, we will ensure that Europe is wellplaced to face possible future crises.

You can read the entire statement here:

Open Letter

Continuous support for Ukraine from the Protected Area Community

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EUROPARC would like to thank members and friends who have donated thus far to support our Protected Areas’ colleagues in Ukraine, through the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) appeal.

Please continue to show European Protected Areas’ solidarity and do support this appeal, or others—in your own country. Main information about the FZS initiative and support channel in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and French can be found here.

Once again, we remind you that you can support and help refugee people in the Protected Areas of Ukraine by using the following designated donation account of the FZS 

Emergency support for Protected Areas in the Carpathians:

IBAN: DE63 5005 0201 0000 0800 02

BIC: HELADEF 1822

We have spoken directly to our colleagues in Ukraine, and they have expressed their appreciation for the moral and physical support you are giving. They are getting our messages. And they ask for your continued help and support to keep our voices of international cooperation alive by ensuring you too, condemn these actions.

To our Protected Areas, especially in Poland,  Slovakia, Romania, and other neighbouring countries, we really appreciate and acknowledge the generosity you have shown in looking after those fleeing Ukraine. As the situation worsens more and more people will need assistance, and again we ask Protected Areas, even further West who have accommodation to offer to make that known and available. We will get this information to Ukraine, who can coordinate from within. Word has already reached us from the Bavarian Forest, where refugees have found shelter. It is truly heartening to see the Protected Area community come together in these difficult times.

Our colleagues in Ukraine are responding to the environmental and humanitarian crises that have been inflicted upon them. Many of the Rangers and other Protected Area staff are now fighting in the army or are defending their country in the home guards. We hope they remain safe.

EUROPARC will do our best, working with others like the FZS to keep communication channels open and be ready to respond and support the people and nature of Ukraine, both now and in the future.

Continuous support for Ukraine from the Protected Area Community

Published on:

EUROPARC would like to thank members and friends who have donated thus far to support our Protected Areas’ colleagues in Ukraine, through the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) appeal.

Please continue to show European Protected Areas’ solidarity and do support this appeal, or others—in your own country. Main information about the FZS initiative and support channel in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and French can be found here.

Once again, we remind you that you can support and help refugee people in the Protected Areas of Ukraine by using the following designated donation account of the FZS 

Emergency support for Protected Areas in the Carpathians:

IBAN: DE63 5005 0201 0000 0800 02

BIC: HELADEF 1822

We have spoken directly to our colleagues in Ukraine, and they have expressed their appreciation for the moral and physical support you are giving. They are getting our messages. And they ask for your continued help and support to keep our voices of international cooperation alive by ensuring you too, condemn these actions.

To our Protected Areas, especially in Poland,  Slovakia, Romania, and other neighbouring countries, we really appreciate and acknowledge the generosity you have shown in looking after those fleeing Ukraine. As the situation worsens more and more people will need assistance, and again we ask Protected Areas, even further West who have accommodation to offer to make that known and available. We will get this information to Ukraine, who can coordinate from within. Word has already reached us from the Bavarian Forest, where refugees have found shelter. It is truly heartening to see the Protected Area community come together in these difficult times.

Our colleagues in Ukraine are responding to the environmental and humanitarian crises that have been inflicted upon them. Many of the Rangers and other Protected Area staff are now fighting in the army or are defending their country in the home guards. We hope they remain safe.

EUROPARC will do our best, working with others like the FZS to keep communication channels open and be ready to respond and support the people and nature of Ukraine, both now and in the future.