Uplands council hosts workshop at European conference
OVER 300 delegates from across Europe attended the recent Europarc Federation Conference in the Vallée de Joux located in the Parc Jura Vaudois, Switzerland, including a delegation from Wicklow Uplands Council.
The Europarc Federation serves as a network for Europe’s natural and cultural heritage and aims to improve the management of Protected Areas across Europe through international cooperation, the exchange of ideas and experience and by influencing policy.
The annual conference, comprising a series of talks, workshops and field-trips, is the largest gathering of park professionals in Europe. This year’s conference theme ‘We are the Parks’ focused on the role that people play in the creation and management of protected areas and aimed to highlight how local communities can participate in the governance of parks. Governance of protected areas was the key theme of the conference with keynote speakers discussing the Swiss democratic model of parks and their ‘ bottom-up’ model of park management, an approach that Wicklow Uplands Council takes in all their work.
A small delegation from Wicklow Uplands Council attended the conference and had the very exciting opportunity of hosting a workshop titled ‘We are Sustainable Farmers’.
The four-hour workshop was attended by a number of important delegates including the Project Manager for Biodiversity and Ecosystems in the European Environment Agency, members of the Europarc Council and representatives from protected areas across Europe.
The workshop presented by Wicklow Uplands Council Acting Co-ordinator, Brian Dunne, discussed the needs of farmers, local communities and recreational users in relation to their pro- tected areas. The importance of cooperation and communication between all stakeholder groups was discussed at length and the partnership model undertaken by Wicklow Uplands Council was seen as a model template by those present.
It was agreed by all that farmers have an important role to play in the best management of protected areas and that farmers need to have more involvement in the decision- making pro- cesses related to them.
The decline in traditional hill farming coupled with the ongoing restrictions to effective habitat management of upland areas has resulted in an overall decline in upland biodiversity.
The need for a Locally Led Agri-Environment Scheme to support our upland farmers was presented as a case study and was welcomed as ‘a very exciting development’ by the participants.