Save these dates in 2023!

National Park Nieuweland, Oostvaardersplassen, Netherlands - a field trip a the Conference in 2023!

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2023 marks the 50-year Anniversary of the EUROPARC Federation! There will be amble opportunity to celebrate with us, both on and offline! Keep on reading to discover some events in 2023 that you should already mark in your calendar.

What is happening in 2023?

As always, the answer is: loads! As we hit our 50-Year milestone, EUROPARC looks forward to celebrating with its members. We will soon start collecting video messages, where our members can detail what the EUROPARC Federation means to them. After all, it is our members, that make up the organisation!

However, there are many more exciting things happening… For example, in March, the first course of the LIFE ENABLE project will start. 60 participants will get to learn and work with the European Nature Academy for the first time. Furthermore, the LIFE Natur’Adapt and LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans projects are coming to an end in the first half of the year and the results will be widely distributed, watch this space!

Now, get out your calendars…

14 – 15 March: LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans closing conference

The Conference, titled “Greening Towards Urban Resilience” is the closing event of the LIFE UrbanGreeningPlans project. It will bring together people from different disciplines to reflect on urban greening, sharing best practice case studies and working towards a common framework. To do so, we will take into account multiple scales and angles. We will consider a wide range of urban ecosystems, from urban forests, parks, blue and green corridors, to others. Furthermore, we will consider the actual contexts of climate change, rapid urbanization and social uncertainty. The Conference is open to all interested, and registration will start in January.

20 – 22 March: EUROPARC Siggen Seminar

The Siggen Seminar is our annual free of charge training event for members at Gut Siggen in Heringsdorf, Germany. This March, under the theme “Parks unlocked; Innovative Financing to Transform Parks across Europe“, we will be taking a deep dive into models that attract private finance. How can these be unlocked and drive nature restoration at scale? What role can Parks play in building the market for investing in Europe’s natural capital? We are looking for attendees who can scale up nature restoration plans in your region, territory and country! Registration will open mid-January.

9 – 12 May: Final Conference of LIFE Natur’Adapt

Climate Change Adaptation will become of increasing importance for nature managers. Anticipating the change that will happen, and how to respond to it, is an essential skill to develop. Over the course of the Natur’Adapt project, a manual on climate change adaptation was produced and tested in 21 sites in France. Now, the project is coming to a close and the results will be presented during this final conference in Nime, France. The event will be in French and is open to all interested.

16 – 19 May: ECST Meeting

After a COVID-19 induced hiatus, the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism meeting is back! Sustainable Tourism experts will meet in Triglav National Park, Slovenia, to discuss, exchange and learn from each other. Learn more about previous ECST meetings here and for now: save the date!

24th of May: European Day of Parks

This year, we are ‘Building on our Roots‘! We invite Parks and Protected Areas to explore the idea of the heritage you have. This can both be the natural heritage you protect, but also the heritage of your organisation. Together, let’s raise awareness about the responsibility we have to keep this natural and cultural heritage for future generations, and discover how we can build upon it! We especially invite Parks to already think of activities that help our natural heritage flourish, like tree planing activities, a clean-up day or removal of invasive species.

20 – 23 June: TransParcNet Meeting

EUROPARC’s TransParcNet will meet in the Maas-Schwalm-Nette Nature Park in The Netherlands / Germany! The focus of this year’s meeting will be on the response to natural disasters in border areas.

7 – 14 July: 19th International Junior Ranger Camp

Exciting news for all those with Junior Ranger Programmes! Next year’s International Junior Ranger Camp is kindly hosted by Frederikshavn and spearheaded by Bo Storm. The Junior Rangers will experience nature conservation and management of ocean and coastal Protected Areas up at the tip of Denmark, from the 7th until the 14th of July.

3 – 6 October: EUROPARC Conference

Get ready to celebrate EUROPARC’s 50-Year Anniversary in style! This year’s EUROPARC Conference is taking place in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, where we will pay “Tribute to the Landscape“. We will celebrate the beauty and diversity of the versatile European natural and cultural landscapes. Humans have had an impact on the European landscape for centuries. This has created some of our most iconic landscapes, however it has also resulted in dis-harmony between people and nature. This EUROPARC Conference wants to help participants discover how we can connect people and nature, in order to find long-term harmony. Registration will open in April.

What is happening in Brussels?

The European Commission declared 2023 the ‘European Year of Skills‘. Of course, sharpening the skills of Protected Area professionals, is something EUROPARC continues to work on in 2023. However, this year will also be a big policy year.

In 2022 the European Commission published the proposal for the Nature Restoration Law. Now, it’s up to the other EU institutions to comment and amend this proposal. Furthermore, the EU institutions have agreed that, despite adverse geopolitical circumstances, the implementation of the EU Green Deal will be a top priority in the coming year.

Furthermore, 2023 will also be the year to start preparing for the European Parliament elections 2024. We all need to act to push all candidates to continue the Green Deal with the future Parliament and the future Commission.

As can be expected, EUROPARC will closely follow the developments around the Nature Restoration Law and the EU Green Deal. Updates will be shared constantly on our social media en E-News, so be sure to follow along!