News Update and Recent Work
Examples of EUROPARC Consulting’s work:
A work-changing, life-changing experience...
Posted on: 25th October 2011
Another successful study tour for experts has just been finished. Protected-area officers from four national parks and a strict nature reserve in Ukraine spent six days touring several Parcs naturels régionaux and a national park in Southern France. “It was a life-changing experience”, concluded one participant, “which will also change my whole work pattern forever.”
Not surprisingly, the pace for this well-organised EUROPARC Consulting study tour was fast. Every day it started before 8 o’clock in the morning and usually did not finish until at least 6 o’clock in the evening. Following the clients’ careful briefing, a varied but demanding programme had been prepared so that participants could see in practice, at first hand, how things can be done.
They saw possible ways towards greener forms of tourism, examples of good practice for local involvement, the involvement of stakeholders and other partners. Visitor impact and management, zoning in protected areas, mass tourism versus quality environmental education – all these were explored.
In particular, we concentrated on good examples of local businesses working closely together with the protected-area authorities towards a win-win situation: good business for local firms helping protect those precious landscapes.
That the study tour took place in beautiful weather and in the stunning beauty of Provence were added bonuses which helped the learning process no end. As did the wine and the splendid locally-grown food. The excellent bicycle enterprise “Vélo loisir en Luberon” even organised a practical demonstration of its skills: fitting out the group with bicycles and guiding them along a 10-mile course to an excellent museum of olive oil production. A most inspiring effort.
One evening, the whole Ukrainian group took the opportunity to thank our hosts with songs and drink from the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains. Bringing together people from different parts of Europe, exchanging experience and knowledge, is one of the aims of EUROPARC Consulting. This study tour has been an excellent example of what can be achieved, even in a short time.
For more information, please contact wilf.fenten@europarc-consulting.org or info@europarc-consulting.org.
