February 2015

On 23 February 2015, the Project Advisory Group met for the first time at the office of the Verband Deutscher Naturparke in Bonn. During the meeting, Regional Nature Park experts from seven European countries discussed the content of the survey and the next working steps.

The members of the advisory group emphasized the great value of the project for the further development of all European Regional Nature Parks. They welcomed the project’s aim to strengthen the cooperation between park associations from different European countries and to highlight the importance of European Regional Nature Parks to politicians and other decision makers.

Many fruitful comments concerning the survey questions and the project procedure were given and new ideas were implemented. It was pointed out, that the study will be the first to collect best-practice examples for Regional Nature Park work throughout so many European countries. The members agreed that the comprehensive publication on the park’s work will be of great value to parks and park associations to further improve their work and to learn from other countries experiences.

The next meeting of the Project Advisory group is planned for end of 2015.