Workshops EN

Moderator : Olaf Holm. Directeur – Parc naturel régional de la Montagne de Reims

There is an increasing number of events and participants in outdoor leisure and sport activities that take part inside protected areas. This is both a business opportunity and a moment to highlight the protected area’s role in nature conservation. Problems arise at multiple levels from destructive impacts on fauna and flora as well as accidents and safety/rescue issues. Can we manage these elements and still create sporting events in protected areas? Is Sport IN Nature fit for purpose? We will discuss and learn what has been done to organise such events.

Case Study#1

Carlota Martinez Alandi, EUROPARC SPAIN

“Guide to good practices for holding mountain races in protected natural areas”

How can we improve the compatibility between mountain races and other sport activities, and natural and cultural heritage conservation in protected areas? To tackle the growing tendency of mountain races being taking place in protected areas, EUROPARC Spain developed the guidelines “Mountain races in protected areas: the challenge of balancing sport and conservation”, in which runners, sport federations, scientist and natural areas representatives participated.

Carlota will present practical case studies from the field, spark the debate about the positive and negative impacts of mountain races and discuss some solutions from EUROPARC Spain book.

Case Study#2

François BEAUCHARD, Directeur CREPS Rhône-Alpes, ENOS Chairman et Antoine LE BELLEC, chargé de mission, Pôle Resosurce national des sports de nature

“Connecting protected areas and nature sports, work together to face new challenges, the example of the Pôle Ressources National Sports de Nature and the interest of ENOS (European Network of Outdoor Sports)”

Since 2005, protected areas and institutions of sports and its federations worked together to improve the management of sports and events to reduce impacts. A lot of tools are created; the relationships are improved, solutions are found. Cooperation and exchange were necessary to build up a common understanding and work together on solutions.

Today, more and more events are organised in protected areas and even if they are managed in a sustainable way, the increasing number are creating problems of impact. How to find answers to this new question? To have a larger viewpoint on these questions, the European network of outdoor sports (ENOS) could bring some answers to protected areas. What are the tools available?

What is the limit that a protected area can support? What are the good practices on European level?

Moderator: Frank Gruertz, International Ranger Federation/European Ranger Association

All over the world Rangers stand in the frontline of nature conservation – on the Thin Green Line! They are the faces and ambassadors for their parks in the public. The variety of tasks and duties of Rangers is very wide, from patrolling and law enforcement to environmental education, monitoring of wildlife and resource management. As multiple as the duties of Rangers in Europe are also the Ranger Training Standards of the different European countries vary. We will examine some different Ranger training systems and approaches in Europe and highlight the skills and standards needed for a modern Park Ranger.

Case study # 1

Ruth Grant, Scottish Countryside Rangers´ Association (UK)

“Modern Park Rangers – the Scottish Professional Ranger Development as a key to success”
From national training course to continuing professional development – meeting the needs of rangers and park managers.
Ruth Grant will give a snapshot of Scotland’s approaches to equipping Rangers with their essential professional skills needed for a high-quality care in parks.

Moderator: Katja Artz, EUROPARC Germany

Traditionally, national and regional protected areas have been fully funded from administrations. However, in recent years alternative funding strategies for protected areas to supplement or replace traditional fundings have emerged.  This workshop will examine, what makes them successful?
Different funding strategies of parks to enhance their financial support from the private sector in order to protect nature will be considered such as the labelling of products, collecting donations, to the very sophisticated distribution of ecosystem services will be examined. As well as identifying what is and how we measure success, the workshop will look at negative/ positive experience with companies funding nature projects and What can the community of all parks in EUROPARC do to enhance funding from the private sector?

Case study # 1

Examples from the NL“Marketplace Nature” Online Funding Platform for Nature projects, EUROPARC Germany.

The idea of “Marketplace Nature” is, to collect project ideas from parks which urgently need financial support. Companies are invited to support “Their” nature project, depended on financial resources, subjects or location.

Case study # 2

Examples from Germany “New Markets for Biodiversity” – High quality sponsoring for nature, EUROPARC Germany
Nature parks complete many socially beneficial conservation projects that are valuable to the country, like biodiversity, clean water. However, these beneficial are no longer byproducts of modern land use. E.g. Meadow Orchards are given up, because they are economical insufficient. EUROPARC Germany therefor seeks to establish a market mechanism for biodiversity. Nature projects will be certified, to guarantee the best ecological output. Companies and private investors on the demand side will find opportunities to invest in nature projects and demonstrate their contribution to nature protection to the public on a professional basis.

Moderator: Tim Vines, EUROPARC Atlantic Isles

Protected areas at the interface between the marine and terrestrial have a unique and interesting perspective.
People care strongly about our coasts. Access to them is important to our health and well-being and relationships to the marine environment make a fundamental contribution to the economy and culture of our coastal communities.
Our coasts and coastal waters are under considerable pressure, from both human activities – such as conventional and renewable energy, port development, recreation and tourism – and not least from climate change impacts, particularly sea-level rise leading to increased coastal flooding and erosion.
Regimes and legislation for management of land and the marine environment are often separate and not well coordinated – we are still not good at integrated coastal management.
The workshop will explore land-sea relationships and work being done to integrate management across the land-sea boundary.

Case Study # 1

Tim Callaway, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK)

“Active management for a changing coastline; experience from a coastal realignment project”
The case study will present experience and learning points from ‘Medmerry’, a partnership project to realign a section of coast in the South Downs National Park in southern England, which produced benefits for both flood management and wildlife.

Moderator: Teresa Pastor, EUROPARC

The natural spaces around our major urban places are vital green lungs for city dwellers as well as important features of the landscape.  The pressures these greenspaces are under can be immense with multi use visitation   and different land uses all competing with the need to maintain viable and resilient habitats. This workshop, learning from the experience of Fedenatur members, will examine different methodologies to measure the impact of visitors and explore ideas such as carrying capacity and limits of acceptable change.

Case study # 1

Diego García Ventura, EUROPARC Spain

Carrying capacity assessment – a review
Diego García will make a framework introduction to the concepts of carrying capacity and limits of acceptable change in protected areas, two of the most common methodologies used to assess how much is too much.

Case study # 2

Estela Farías, University of Lleida (ES)

Tracking and managing environmental impact caused by people in natural areas, with a special focus on periurban parks.
Estela Farías will focus on more intuitive and integrated methodologies and protocols to measure impact of people in periruban parks, attending both the greater pressure of visitation and diversity of uses in them and the lack of sensitivity of some of the users. She will also give some ideas on how to reduce impacts.

Moderator: Jakub Kaspar, Krknose National Park (CZ) President of EUROPARC CEE

The political times we live in have raised questions about how open or closed our borders should be… BUT nature knows no boundaries, and the people who manage nature have been able to find ways to cooperate and work together. Despite political and national interests and complex histories, those in EUROPARC’s transboundary programme have been able to establish positive working relationship that go far beyond the wildlife and landscape they manage.
We examine good practise across the TransPArc Network and elaborate how what they have learned can be translated into work across Europe.

Case study #1

Pirkko Siikamäki Metsähallitus – Oulanka National Park (FI)

Oulanka -Paanajärvi National parks – cross-border cooperation between Finland and Russian. Practical examples on the cross-border cooperation between Finland and Russia. How we can operate at the border between the European Union and Russian? What kind of benefits, what kind of problems we are facing. What are the current challenges and the future prospects?

Case study #2

Martin Starý, Šumava National Park (CZ)

Cooperation across the border between Germany and Czech Republic
28 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, 13 years after joining the EU and 10 years after joining the Schengen Area, living and every-day work in the Czech Republic has changed dramatically. However some kind of borders still remained. How does the current cross border cooperation look like in the Czech-German-Austrian border area? What are the barriers and limits of the cooperation?

Moderator: Jose Atauri, EUROPARC Spain  

Given the evidence of the effects of climate change, it is necessary to develop criteria to guide actions for climate change adaption. This will require strengthening mechanisms for collaboration between scientists and managers of protected areas.

Adaptation to climate change in protected areas should be based on an ecosystem approach, aiming for the protection of the natural resources and ecosystem services provided to society.

Facing this complex challenge requires the establishment of alliances at administration level with the different sectors of society. The workshop will include the presentation of good practice, both in the development of planning tools and in the design of conservation projects.

Case study # 1

Jose Atauri, EUROPARC Spain

Incorporating climate change adaptation into planning and management. Experiences from Spain.

How to include climate change measures in our job? Tools to incorporate climate change adaptation measures in the cycle of planning and management of protected areas will be presented.

Case study # 2

Leonardo Bejarano, Generalitat de Catalunya (ES)

PLANNING PROTECTED AREAS ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN CATALONIA.

Proceedings for incorporating climate change adaptation criteria in the planning and management of protected areas network system in the policies of a regional government.
Pilot cases, good practice and support tools in the field of adaptation to climate change in protected areas in Catalonia.

CANCELLED (due to operational reasons)

Sustainable tourism is not just about sustaining the landscape, the wildlife and the people and culture of an area, it about being economically sustainable too. That means not just identifying like-minded partners but making good financial choices and funding for the future. We look at how some public and private funding partnership have come about and what were the motivations behind the them.

Moderator: Amanda Guzman, , Ecotourism Club in Spain (ES)

The charter for sustainable tourism in protected areas has enabled small tourism enterprises to be recognised for the efforts made to reduce their impact and resource. We take you on a tour of the charter partners. Learning what practical changes they have made to make their businesses more sustainable and economical…and importantly. why they choose to!

Moderator: Corrado Teofilo Federparchi, EUROPARC Italia

Working in partnership with the farming industry is important if nature and biodiversity is to thrive outside of nature reserves.  IS sustainable agriculture a reality or a pipe dream. How can we marry the needs of the protected areas and that of food production?  We examine what makes a successful partnership that benefit wildlife and farming, and how these could be replicated across Europe.

Case Study #1

Rita Alcazar, Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (PT)

“A success story of Great Bustard, Little Bustard and Lesser Kestrel in the Baixo Alentejo cereal steppes” by Rita Alcazar from LPN – Liga para a Proteção da Natureza (oldest Portuguese environmental NGO), Portugal
Rita will tell us how the LPN has established contracts with local farmers for the management of the 2000 ha they own in South Portugal and its positive impact, mixing CAP policy and Natura2000, making it an opportunity for all, farmers, nature conservation, environmental education and ecotourism.