A Side event entitled “ Aree Protette e Rete NATURA 2000/Protected Areas and Natura 2000 Network ”, was organized by CED PPN at the recent EUROPARC Conference 2010.

CEESP member Roberto Gambini and co-organiser of the event reports,

“The meeting has focused on the relationship between Parks and Protected Areas set up by national and regional governments of the whole Europe , and Natura 2000 Network set up by European Union. The debate started from the results of a new research, still in progress by CED-PPN with the help of EUROPARC, which enlights such relationship taking into account divergences and overlaps of both systems. The debate on the involved problems suggested further actions for a better coordination among nature conservation policies at the different levels.

Forum “ New frontiers of conservation: suggestions and perspectives ”, promoted by CED PPN.

Globalization revives the crucial importance of integrating nature conservation policies into territorial policies. Nowadays nature conservation policies have actually to face the new frontiers of the relationship between nature and culture: facing the effects of global change by adaptation and mitigations strategies, trying to defend biodiversity avoiding irreversible damages to ecosystems, they are more and more related to issues such as cultural diversity, social and political security and economic sustainable development.

In such a frame, the landscape concept is assuming a pivotal role for nature conservation and new alliances between nature and landscape policies are envisaged, referring both to the cultural landscapes (IUCN Protected Landscapes, World Heritage UNESCO Sites) and to the overall landscape. In this direction, CED PPN has launched a research programme (“ European parks and landscapes: a territorial research programme ”, 2008) largely based on a previous investigation on European Protected Areas, which has been discussed in the IUCN World Conservation Congress of Barcelona (2008) and particularly in a WS dedicated to “ The landscape dynamic mosaic ” (M.G. Borrini Feyerabend, R.Gambino, A. Phillips, 2008).

The research raises some general questions as the following.

1. Which are the new frontiers for the international scientific communities, in view of carrying out more effective policies for the conservation and enhancement of natural and cultural heritage?
2. Which are the sense and the scope, to this end, of landscape policies?
3. Which role have to play the local communities and indigenous people, in the presence of value systems and risk factors of an over-local significance?
4. Which role can play the normative approaches (particularly the institution and protection of areas of specific value) towards multilateral governance strategies?
5. Which missions can be assigned to planning, with the aim of a more effective integration of conservation policies into the overall territorial policies?

CED PPN is planning to create a web-forum so as to open the above cited five questions to a wide range of experts, inside and outside IUCN.”

Roberto Gambini, CEESP member and European Documentation Centre on Nature Park Planning - CED PPN, Polytechnic of Turin