An island goes Charter

Two “firsts” were achieved with this year’s Spanish and Portuguese Charter Network Meeting: For the first time the meeting was organised by a Spanish National Park and it was the first time that the meeting took place on an island. La Gomera is one of the Canary Islands situated west of Africa and home of the Garajonay National Park. Not only because of the beautiful scenery but mainly because of excellent organisation by the national park authority, the local development group Aider La Gomera and EUROPARC Spain the meeting was very motivating and produced valuable outcomes.

Garajonay National Park is located in the center and north of the island of La Gomera and was declared a national park in 1981 and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. It received Charter status in 2008. It occupies 40 km2 and it extends into each of the municipalities on the island. The park provides the best example of laurisilva, a humid subtropical forest that in the Tertiary covered almost all of Europe. It is also found on the Azores and the Madeira Islands.

Around 85 representatives from Spanish and Portuguese Charter areas (including protected area authorities, local development groups and local tourism businesses) have participated in the meeting. But also interested protected areas and institutions from the Canary Island have found their way to the Culture Centre of Vallehermoso, one of the island’s municipalities. After the official opening session the first day started with presentations of first-hand experiences from Sierra Nevada National and Nature Park, Alcornocales Nature Park and Peneda-Geres National Park on their re-evaluation process. All three parks gave criticial insight in the strengths and weaknesses they faced in the process, why they decided to keep on working with the Charter and proposed their solutions. In the afternoon the participants split up into five different working groups that employed all the same participatory methodology, the Rural Diagnostic Appraisal, enabling them to discuss the problems/questions related to the specific topic of the working group. All working groups produced a series of proposals which were presented in a closing plenary session the next day.

The day finished off with technical visits to a local producer of palm tree honey, the historical city of San Sebastian de La Gomera and a recuperation station for the giant lizard of La Gomera (Gallotia bravoana). On Saturday different excursions were offered to discover the Garajonay National Park and other sights of the island.

Further information, presentations and the outcomes from the meeting will soon be available our website and the website of EUROPARC Spain (www.europarc-es.org).

The Charter Network of Spain and Portugal is the biggest national network on European level and is coordinated by EUROPARC Spain in collaboration with the EUROPARC Federation. The network has been formed with the aim to facilitate communication between the different protected areas and stakeholders and realize joint actions. Its main objectives are the promotion and implementation of the Charter in the two countries, enhance Communication flow between the different stakeholders, identify common work programmes and propose funding mechanisms for networking activities. Until today, it counts 23 protected areas (national and nature parks) that have received Charter status since 2001 and 10 Charter Candidates. The Nature Park of La Garrotxa has already successfully renewed its Charter status and six are currently preparing their application forms for re-evaluation. In the framework of the second part of the Charter, the Spanish Sections has started a training programme which led to the certification of 69 tourism businesses in six Spanish Charter areas.