The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has announced the re-election of Sonia Castañeda as Regional Councillor for Western Europe, a result that enjoyed broad and solid support from members worldwide.

The IUCN Council is the main governing body of IUCN between the sessions of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the greatest event of its kind for nature conservation experts worldwide, and the General Assembly of its Members.

The October 2025 elections, in which the Union’s members voted, resulted in the re-election of Ms. Razan Al Mubarak of the United Arab Emirates to the Presidency. Sonia Castañeda, Deputy Director of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), was also re-elected. Her candidacy, presented by the ministry, was supported by, among others, the EUROPARC Federation.

In the organization’s 78 years of existence, only three Spanish nationals have been elected to the Council. Currently, the new Council boasts more than 50% women (the highest in the Union’s history).

Sonia Castañeda: “Being a member of the IUCN Council involves making decisions during the four years between Congresses and Assemblies. Issues related to policies and projects, the organization’s governance, and financial and budgetary matters are addressed. I think it’s important that the Western European region is represented by people from the Mediterranean and, in the case of Spain, also from the Atlantic. This allows all perspectives and realities to be considered in a Council of such an international nature.”

The fact that our work is appreciated internationally is really great and shows us that we are going in the right direction in caring for the Šumava National Park.

Says Pavel Hubený, Director of the Šumava National Park Administration, and one of the winners of the 2025-2030 Transboundary Parks Award.

With this article, we welcome the transboundary areas, which have been recertified under the 2025 – 2030 Transboundary Parks certification scheme. Importantly, all three recertified protected areas achieved all 14 out of 14 Basic Standards of cooperation under the EUROPARC Transboundary Parks Programme, setting a benchmark for excellence worldwide.

Newly Certified Transboundary Protected Areas (2025-2030)

We are proud to present the Transboundary Protected Areas that have successfully earned re-certification under the Transboundary Parks Programme for 2025-2030:

🏆 Julian Alps Biosphere Reserve

A stunning landscape spanning Slovenia and Italy, the Julian Alps Biosphere Reserve has shown exceptional commitment to cross-border conservation and sustainable community engagement.

Learn more: Julian Alps story

Julian Alps Transboundary Area collecting their certificates and trophies during EUROPARC 2025 Conference. Photo: Vaidas Garla

🏆 Pasvik – Inari Transboundary Area

Stretching across Norway, Finland, and Russia, the Pasvik – Inari area is a model of cooperative management in remote and ecologically sensitive regions.

Watch the re-evaluation visit: Pasvik – Inari video

Pasvik-Inari Transboundary Area collecting their certificates and trophies during EUROPARC 2025 Conference. Photo: Vaidas Garla

🏆 Bavarian Forest & Šumava National Parks

These iconic parks on the German-Czech border have exemplified long-term collaboration, combining biodiversity conservation with sustainable tourism.

Discover their success: More on Bavarian Forest & Šumava

Martin Stary collecting certificates and trophies during EUROPARC 2025 Conference for Sumava National Park and Bavarian Forest National Park cross-border area. Photo: Vaidas Garla

Congratulations to All Teams

The achievements of these Transboundary Protected Areas are not just individual accomplishments. They reflect the combined effort of entire teams working across borders, demonstrating what is possible when collaboration and commitment come first.

Your work strengthens European cooperation, conserves nature, and sets a shining example for future generations. Keep up the excellent work!

Yorkshire Dales National Park approved a Youth Participation Vision

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is one of the strongest champions of the EUROPARC Youth Manifeso published in 2018 at the EUROPARC Conference in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Since then, they have made a significant effort to involve young people across many aspects of their work. This led to a decrease in the average age of board members and park staff, ensuring more age diversity in voices and helps with generational knowledge sharing. Below you can see the first advocacy on integrating the Youth Manifesto into the work of the National Park.

Youth Manifesto in the Yorkshire Dales – Green Deal

Recently, they launched a press release about their newly approved youth participation vision which brings together all the various youth activities and efforts into a strategic vision.

Press release

“Young people are empowered to lead and have a voice in protecting the Yorkshire Dales National Park,” the National Park Authority has agreed at a meeting.

The undertaking is set out in a “Statement on Youth Participation”, which puts into words the public body’s vision and commitment to young people.

The National Park Authority currently works with more 2000 young people each year to help deliver its purposes, including by supporting youth volunteering programmes such as Up Skill Down Dale.

At a full Authority meeting held yesterday, Members voted to agree the statement on youth participation as a means of embedding youth work in the culture of the organisation and to make sure young people are involved in all aspects of decision making.

Katie Norgate, one of the Authority’s co-opted young Members said: “This is a clear and strong commitment to youth involvement with specific, measurable targets that make the commitment feel actionable and accountable, which gives real confidence that this policy will lead to meaningful change.

Involving youth and giving them the opportunity to be co- creators will directly shape the Authority’s work.

Member Champion for Promoting Understanding, Neil Heseltine, said: “We run educational and skills-based activities for young people alongside our volunteering programmes for young people and our apprenticeships programme. We’ve also co-opted youth members to our Finance and Resources committee and involved nine young people in the drafting of the new Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan.

“What we didn’t have, until today, was a concise summary of our vision and commitment to young people. Our ‘Statement of Youth Participation’ is intended to inform our approach to youth engagement, encourage collaborative working with partners, inform bids for project funds to do more work with young people, and assist in advocating for enhanced roles for young people on National Park Authority boards.

“Many young people want to use their time to conserve and enhance the environment, and to be outdoors in nature. We want to harness that energy to help make the National Park and even more accessible and beautiful place.”

For more information, please contact the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Media Officer Andrew Fagg or Communications Manager Mark Sadler (name.surname@yorkshiredales.org.uk).

The Youth Mobility Workshop for European Youth in Parks Day 2024 (c) Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

Meet the two winners of the EUROPARC Scholarship for Young Professionals 2025 – 2026.

Winners of the EUROPARC Scholarship for Young Professionals

EUROPARC strongly believes that investing in capacity building for young professionals is vital for the long term success of Europe’s Protected Areas. Like everything else, the future of Protected Areas relies on the young generation taking an active and informed role. The EUROPARC Federation, with support from the EU LIFE Programme, is awarding two Scholarship Awards to promising young conservationists, who are committed to working for the benefit of Protected Areas. The aim of the scholarships is to enhance international cooperation and to advance the quality, innovation and European dimension of Protected Area management.

The Scholarship includes a travel stipendium to visit protected areas in another country in 2026 and to delve into a topic of interest, sharing the outcomes of their learnings with the EUROPARC network at the end of next year.

The winners, Eudald Vicens Roig and Irene Mineo were invited to receive their awards at the EUROPARC Conference 2025 in Lithuania. Irene was not able to join in person and instead sent a video message for the EUROPARC members which can be seen below.

Eudald Vicens Roig

Eudald is a conservation technician at La Sorellona, an environmental consultancy based in Girona, Spain. He works on urban nature restoration projects under the EU-funded Riunatur and GiroNat initiatives, involving biodiversity monitoring, habitat restoration, and nature-based solutions in urban water systems. He also leads participatory workshops on climate adaptation and drought resilience. La Sorellona manages visitor and education services at Cap de Creus and Aiguamolls de l’Empordà Natural Parks and contributes to the LIFE Rescue Alpyr project in Alt Pirineu Natural Park, all members of EUROPARC (Generalitat de Catalunya).

His area of interest for his study visits is rewilding principles of using wild herbivores in both the Alto Tajo Natural Park (Spain) and Zuid-Kennemerland National Park (The Netherlands).

Photo credit: Vaidas Garla

Irene Mineo

Irene is a coordinator of the Scottish Marine Environmental Enhancement Fund at Nature Scot. She is responsible for managing and developing the SMEEF programme, supporting the funding and delivery of marine restoration projects across Scotland. Her activities include stakeholder engagement, coordinating grant calls, assessing project proposals, facilitating partnerships, and promoting best practices in marine enhancement and nature-based solutions. The role also involves strategic planning, communications, and contributing to national policy objectives on marine conservation and biodiversity.

The goal of her study visits is to explore and compare practical approaches to seagrass restoration and conservation in Scotland and Italy, with a focus on how community engagement, policy, and scientific methods are integrated into protected area management. By learning from different cultural and ecological contexts, she aims to identify transferable strategies that can enhance marine restoration efforts, strengthen partnerships, and support biodiversity and climate resilience in coastal ecosystems. For this she plans to visit a local seagrass restoration project in Scotland and visit Rome to learn from ISPRA and FUGRO about their efforts along the Italian coastline.

To follow both of these young professionals on their study trips, stay tuned to EUROPARC newsletters, news and social media. If you are interested in youth empowerment projects for young professionals and practitioners, consider following the EUROPARC Youth Instagram @europarc.youth which will feature the travels of both scholarship winners.

This programme has been supported financially in the framework of the European Commission’s (Directorates General Environment and Climate Action) LIFE funding programme of operating grants for European Environmental NGOs. The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed in the publication lies entirely with the authors.