ECNC-European Centre for Nature Conservation
Encyclopedia
ECNC-European Centre for Nature Conservation is an independent European biodiversity expertise centre for sustainable development
, based on a foundation structure. ECNC’s stated mission is a beautiful Europe
based on a rich biodiversity
, healthy ecosystem
s and sustainable development. The organization promotes an integrated approach for both land and sea and stimulates interaction between science
, society
and policy
.
.
HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands opened the conference and the State Secretary for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands
, Mr. J. Dzsingisz Gabor, formally announced ECNC’s establishment: “For European cooperation, the exchange of information and expertise is crucial. There are still many gaps to be bridged in connecting the different fragments of information and expertise. There are many networks to be built or strengthened in Europe. In order to meet this requirement, a private foundation and an international network of well-established institutes have taken the initiative to set up the European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) in Tilburg, the Netherlands.”
. The Strategy was proposed in the afore mentioned Maastricht Declaration Conserving Europe's Natural Heritage and focuses on stopping and reversing the degradation of biological and landscape diversity values in Europe.
The Pan-European Ecological Network (PEEN) is one of the prime objectives of the PEBLDS and is a major means for implementing the aim of the Strategy for the conservation and management of ecosystems, habitats, species and landscapes in a perspective of sustainable development.
The PEEN is an internationally agreed approach, built upon the ecological network concept
. The underlying philosophy of the establishment of the PEEN is to promote synergy between the existing nature policies, land use planning and rural and urban development.
ECNC has a political mandate to coordinate the establishment of the PEEN, and runs the joint secretariat of its Expert Committee together with the Council of Europe
. The Secretariat creates synergy between the PEEN and the other initiatives promoting the ecological network concept (including the global ecological network), in the context of the PEBLDS and the European Commission programme.
The ECNC Group consists of two units: 'Biodiversity and Nature' (ECNC) and 'Coastal and Marine' (EUCC). The members of the ECNC Group are ECNC, the Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC) and Centro Mediterráneo EUCC. EuroNatur, the NatureBureau and EECONET Action Fund are observers of the ECNC Group.
In 2009 ECNC and EUCC signed a Memorandum of Cooperation; a joint Board, Management Team and Scientific Council were formed. The Large Herbivore Foundation joined the ECNC Group as from July 2010, and continues under its new name as the Large Herbivore Network, under the umbrella of the ECNC Group.
ECNC’s headquarters are located in Tilburg
, the Netherlands. The organization has a regional office for Eastern Europe
, Caucasus
and Central Asia
, based in Zagreb
, Croatia
, which receives support from the Croatian Ministry of Culture
.
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
, based on a foundation structure. ECNC’s stated mission is a beautiful Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
based on a rich biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, healthy ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s and sustainable development. The organization promotes an integrated approach for both land and sea and stimulates interaction between science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
and policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
.
History
In 1993 the European Centre for Nature Conservation was officially launched at the conference ‘Conserving Europe’s Natural Heritage – towards a European Ecological Network’ held in Maastricht, the Netherlands. 267 Participants from 31 European States and 26 international organizations discussed the decline in Europe's biological and landscape diversity, primarily loss and fragmentation of habitats and deterioration of environmental quality, exacerbated by climate changeClimate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
.
HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands opened the conference and the State Secretary for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands
Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Netherlands)
The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality was formerly the ministry of agriculture of the Netherlands...
, Mr. J. Dzsingisz Gabor, formally announced ECNC’s establishment: “For European cooperation, the exchange of information and expertise is crucial. There are still many gaps to be bridged in connecting the different fragments of information and expertise. There are many networks to be built or strengthened in Europe. In order to meet this requirement, a private foundation and an international network of well-established institutes have taken the initiative to set up the European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC) in Tilburg, the Netherlands.”
Areas of work
ECNC projects are clustered in six thematic programmes, which:- highlight the relationship between nature and people;
- address the business side of biodiversity;
- focus on ecological connectivity of nature and land uses;
- monitor changes in biodiversity and ecosystem servicesEcosystem servicesHumankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and include products like clean drinking water and processes such as the decomposition of wastes...
; - combine international and European policies with regional and local approaches;
- cover the natural processes and the role that species play at the landscape scale.
ECNC and the Pan-European Ecological Network
ECNC led the drafting group for the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS). The PEBLDS (1994) is the European response to support the implementation of the UN Convention on Biological DiversityConvention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity , known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is an international legally binding treaty...
. The Strategy was proposed in the afore mentioned Maastricht Declaration Conserving Europe's Natural Heritage and focuses on stopping and reversing the degradation of biological and landscape diversity values in Europe.
The Pan-European Ecological Network (PEEN) is one of the prime objectives of the PEBLDS and is a major means for implementing the aim of the Strategy for the conservation and management of ecosystems, habitats, species and landscapes in a perspective of sustainable development.
The PEEN is an internationally agreed approach, built upon the ecological network concept
Ecological network
An ecological network is a representation of the biotic interactions in an ecosystem, in which species are connected by pairwise interactions . These interactions can be trophic or symbiotic...
. The underlying philosophy of the establishment of the PEEN is to promote synergy between the existing nature policies, land use planning and rural and urban development.
ECNC has a political mandate to coordinate the establishment of the PEEN, and runs the joint secretariat of its Expert Committee together with the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
. The Secretariat creates synergy between the PEEN and the other initiatives promoting the ecological network concept (including the global ecological network), in the context of the PEBLDS and the European Commission programme.
ECNC Group
Since 2008, ECNC has been involved in an integration process with a number of organizations, working under the name ‘ECNC Group’. The purpose of the grouping is to facilitate and better develop the economic activities of the members by a pooling of resources, activities or skills. This will produce better results than the members acting alone.The ECNC Group consists of two units: 'Biodiversity and Nature' (ECNC) and 'Coastal and Marine' (EUCC). The members of the ECNC Group are ECNC, the Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC) and Centro Mediterráneo EUCC. EuroNatur, the NatureBureau and EECONET Action Fund are observers of the ECNC Group.
In 2009 ECNC and EUCC signed a Memorandum of Cooperation; a joint Board, Management Team and Scientific Council were formed. The Large Herbivore Foundation joined the ECNC Group as from July 2010, and continues under its new name as the Large Herbivore Network, under the umbrella of the ECNC Group.
Organizational structure
ECNC is a non-profit foundation, and consists of four bodies which closely interact. The Board provides leadership and legitimacy to ECNC’s operations. The Scientific Council is composed of scientific experts who monitor and give advice on the quality of ECNC’s activities. The Network of currently 51 partners in 27 European countries is an important pool of expertise. The partners, consisting of university departments, expert centres and government agencies, sign a Memorandum of Cooperation to help achieve the ECNC mission. The Secretariat is the coordinating body of ECNC, and consists of an international team of 21 people.ECNC’s headquarters are located in Tilburg
Tilburg
Tilburg is a landlocked municipality and a city in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of Noord-Brabant.Tilburg municipality also includes the villages of Berkel-Enschot and Udenhout....
, the Netherlands. The organization has a regional office for Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, based in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, which receives support from the Croatian Ministry of Culture
Ministry of Culture (Croatia)
The Ministry of Culture is a ministry of the Croatian government, whose work is aimed at preserving the cultural and natural heritage and overseeing its development...
.