PAN Parks / Image from www.panparks.org

Protected Area Network Parks (PAN Parks) – an initiative set up in 1997 under the auspices of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and developed in partnership with Dutch leisure company Molecaten – is to expand its project combining nature conservation and responsible travel with the opening of three new parks.

The new additions, which are expected within the next three years, will meet PAN Parks core criteria designed to protect natural parks from mass development by promoting tourism as a tool for nature conservation and engaging local communities.

“If nature wants to survive today, it has to be profitable”

- Vlado Vancura, PAN Parks Conservation Manager

In line with PAN Parks certification requirements, the three parks will have to offer a core area of at least 100 km2 which can be classified as true wilderness. They will also need to comply with PAN Parks core principles covering environmental, social, economic and cultural aspects. PAN Parks notably focuses on the positive effects of community-based tourism by offering local residents alternative income opportunities, such as the possibility to set up small-scale tourism enterprises or to become professional tour operators.

The PAN Parks initiative aims to improve long-term conservation and tourism management of national parks that were previously undervalued due to their location in remote and/or poorer areas. While the first three parks received certification in 2002, the network currently includes eleven European protected wilderness areas spreading over nine countries including Bulgaria, Finland, Georgia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Russia.

In particular, PAN Parks intends to preserve the parks from unmanaged building development and mass tourism, which have become a serious threat in Eastern Europe where some formerly state-run parks changed hands to local communities or private ownership.