EUROPARC Federation launches with project partners new guidelines for quality
volunteer management in European Parks
“It is that feeling to work in nature, do something healthy and train people how to protect nature, what motivates me most”, says Angela, a volunteer manager of an Italian park. Angela, who participated in a learning exchange of the project “Volunteer management in European Parks” is now sharing her new skills and knowledge with citizens of her region.
The new guidelines, announced by the project partners, fit right into the European Year of Citizens 2013 being launched yesterday by the Irish presidency of the EU. They are a strategic tool to support protected areas in their engagement with communities, and to improve the management of volunteering for nature across Europe. The EU-GRUNDTVIG Multilateral Project engages 10 organizations from eight European countries. It has been running successfully since 2010 and will last until October 2013.
On 18th of December 2012, coordinators met in Berlin and finalized a set of new guidelines. These guidelines have been developed in a participatory approach with protected areas managers and networks of volunteers´ managers and will now be tested within a number of parks across Europe. The new guidelines support the aims of the project to promote the culture of active citizenship, to train volunteer coordinators who can deliver effective opportunities for people to volunteer in protected areas, to provide learning opportunities for volunteers and park staff. In addition, they target to enhance public awareness about the value of volunteering, provide high quality and acceptance of
informal lifelong learning through volunteering and, very importantly, raise thecommitment of park managers to involve citizens from the surroundings as volunteers.
Project partners are the EUROPARC Federation, EUROPARC Atlantic Isles (UK), EUROPARC Germany (DE), Federparchi- EUROPARC Italy (IT), FUNGOBE/ EUROPARC Spain (SP), the Conservation Volunteers (UK), the Environment Agency of Iceland (IC), Nature Conservation Agency of Latvia (LV), the Association of Lithuanian State Parks and Reserves (LT), Rodna Mountains National Park Administration (RO) and
EUROPARC Nordic-Baltic (Scandinavia and The Baltic).
Weblink: http://www.volunteers-in-parks.eu/ and http://www.europarc.org/what-we-do/volunteermanagement
————-
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
