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Ente Parchi Emilia Centrale, ready for the ECST application

70 projects complete the dossier with which the Park Authority will present to Europe its application for the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in the Protected Areas of Central Emilia.

 

The final plenary forum (Rubiera - Modena - Italy - 04/12/2019) marked the end of the process started by Ente Parchi Emilia Centrale last April to obtain the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST), a certification recognised at continental level and supported by Europarc and Federparchi.

The idea of starting the application process started with the participation of the Management Authority in the European project CEETO, of which the Emilia-Romagna Region is the leading partner and within which the Park Authority has prepared, for some protected areas of its territory, a five-year Action Plan and implemented two Pilot Actions for the knowledge and a more sustainable management of tourism flows.

Central Emilia is the first "macro-area" of the Emilia-Romagna region to apply for certification for all its 8 protected areas located between the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia, which thus start, along with their territories, to obtain the important recognition and to be included among the destinations of excellence at European level.

In recent months, dozens of public and private stakeholders have taken part in the candidacy process, working in a vast territory that embraces very different environments and "kind of tourisms".

Municipal administrations, cultural and sports associations, entrepreneurs and tourism operators, promotion offices and destinations management organizations (DMOs), environmental and excursion guides, training and category bodies have been the protagonists of a proactive discussion both among themselves and with the Parks Authority. A step-by-step process that began with a shared analysis of the opportunities to be seized, useful for defining a common strategy and outlining concrete objectives to be achieved in the next five years, through an Action Plan (including those prepared within the framework of the CEETO Project), which includes no less than 70 initiatives and projects (for a total of about 12 million € of investment) carried out not only by the Managing Authority but also, and above all, by the subjects who participated in the process.

The final forum was the moment of approval (in the photo) and subscription of the actions that constitute the heart of the " application dossier ", already sent to the examination of the commission of Europarc.

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