Charter re-evaluation and the quest for Shangri-la

Since 2001, right from the beginning of European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas (ECST), I have worked for EUROPARC Consulting as an external verifier. This has given me a unique opportunity to see the evolution of the Charter process, with many Charter Park verifications in Spain, Italy, France and Great Britain. I have also had the wonderful opportunity to carry out the first set of re-evaluations. In fact, I have done already three of them.

 So what is it like to do a re-evaluation of a Charter park? What can one expect to see after five years of implementing the Action Plan and all the “collective illusion” of trying to shape the Charter area into a better place to live and visit? Have people worked together as they planned and promised? Was the budget large enough and did it bring the expected results? Is everybody conscious of being in a Charter Area? What do they want from the future?

Many answers aren’t easy to find, nor are they always as expected. Surprisingly for me, one of the best indicators is people’s self-criticism about how things went and how they could have gone better. Again, surprisingly, I have seen budgets much higher than the initial one! Unsurprisingly, the Charter after the first 5-year term, has not brought about any promise of Shangri-la!

But even if I didn’t see the “promised land”, I found a place where there is enthusiasm about the future, where people are investing differently in tourism, where sustainability means something and where there is a new way of doing things. In these places the idea of a “park” is a purpose and a reason for working and investing together in a much more coordinated way. Here people, institutions and local stakeholders want a common future and work for it. Whilst in may still not be Eden, I always find that the ECST gives people the proper tool to move things in the right direction.

Why I am so convinced of the benefits of the Charter? Because I have just returned from another protected area which has been re-evaluated and they are sure that they want to stay a Charter area for another 5-years!