Kicking off STEPPA: Sustainable Tourism in Enterprises, Parks and Protected Areas

EUROPARC remains committed to ensuring our protected areas have the tools and advise to manage the complex array of land uses. Tourism is one such use and EUROPARC has long been a champion of sustainable tourism and developed the charter for Sustainable Tourism as a means by which protected areas could work with all actors to care and protect the natural and cultural resources upon which all depend.

Sustainable Tourism in Enterprises, Parks and Protected Areas (STEPPA) is a new project funded through the European Commission DG Enterprise. It responds to the call: Knowledge Networks for the competitiveness and sustainability of European tourism. The STEPPA project, will seek to gather evidence from tourism business working in protected areas certified with European Charter for Sustainable Tourism.

The project is led by the University of Eastern Finland, by previous Alfred Toepfer Scholar winner Henna Konu, with Xavier Font from the University of Leeds and Fernando Correia. They will comprise a project team which will undertake a thorough scientific analysis of the value of the Charter for businesses.

Partners in the project included established Charter parks, Harz National Park (D), Alpi Marittime and Adamello Brenta Nature Parks (IT) and the Andalucian network of 15 Charter Parks. In addition those considering Charter application, such as the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic, Muránska Planina National Park are part of the project and also networks interested in the process, e.g. the Latvian Country Holidays association and CoaST Cornish business network. Of course the EUROPARC Federation will also play a large part in its realisation.

The first kick off meeting for the project took place in Leeds last month .It was a fascinating “tour” of Europe with partner contributors sharing their experiences of sustainable tourism from their areas. It is clear that a lot of good work is going on but the gathering of this material is important for communications with the tourism industry and the European Commission to recognise and support the work of the Charter.

EUROPARC will be communicating the progress , and off course the results of the project to all members, and will soon be seeking volunteer Charter protected areas to take part in the questionnaire which forms the basis of this very important analysis. So once we send the questionnaire out please take part: This information will set the course for the future of the Charter. Information and evidence of the value of Charter is now vital, if we are to continue to  develop and tools for managing tourism  in our protected area in a sustainable way that is good for biodiversity and good for business!

For more information about STEPPA please contact the Federation team