EUROPARC

Introduction

Protected Areas hold a unique place in our land and seascape and can play a transformative role in addressing the biodiversity and climate change crises. The actions proposed in EUROPARC’s plan reflect the perspective of Protected Area managers and management authorities to work towards synergy and coherence across a broad range of EU policy areas not just to address the imminent crises but to proactively contribute to a better European, greener, and more sustainable society.

Objectives

We will work to further improve the understanding of policy content, identifying practical ways to achieve policy goals and advocating for the role and contributions that Protected Areas can make. Our objectives span four identified thematic areas of work:

1. Strengthen and grow our network.
2. Nature and Biodiversity - strengthen the status of Protected Areas.
3. Enhance the status of nature on land and sea and people’s connection to it.
4. Promote sustainable development, tools, and approaches for people and nature.

Planned Activities

Within each work area, our planned activities will deliver EUROPARC’s contributions to:

• Informing policy development and implementation.
• Supporting capacity building.
• Delivering effective communication.

Expected Contributions

We expect that those activities will contribute, in the medium term, to:

• Informing the policy development process at EU and wider levels, with the integration of the perspective and ground expertise of Protected Area and Natura 2000 managing authorities to improve the management of PAs and N2000 sites across Europe.
• Improving the knowledge and expertise of PA and N2000 site managers towards more effective management of PAs.
• Raising awareness and understanding among PA Site managers on EU policy development, while contributing to mobilizing the wide EUROPARC network for better implementation of EU legislation.