European Natura 2000 Award

The new edition will be launched on 22 May on the Award website, and announced in the next issue of this newsletter. 

There are numerous benefits of applying for the Award which include notably a Europe-wide promotion of your achievements.  And should your application be shortlisted for one of the six prizes, you will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony in Brussels where you will get the chance to meet a wide range of actors and stakeholders involved in the policy and practice of implementing Natura 2000.

Visit the Award website now and discover all the benefits of applying and the information to help you reflect on which category would be most fitting to showcase your achievements.  The Commission is happy to receive applications from anyone involved in the management of actions linked to the Natura 2000 network.

Please forward this information to colleagues or organisations in your network who could be interested. Applications will be accepted until 29 September 2023.

• The winner of the Socio-economic benefits award, SEO / BirdLife Cantabria (Spain), will hold a local event at the Marismas de Santoña, Victoria y Joyel Natura 2000 site. The event will be held on 28 April; visiting the sites restored within the project and the planting of native trees are among the activities planned and the NGOs that collaborated in the social aspects of this project will also be present. Find out more information about the event organised by this winning application - Social inclusion and managing invasive alien species - here.
• The Communication category award winner Green Balkans (Bulgaria) will organise their local event on 27 May 2023 at the Muzeiko Educational Museum (Sofia). It will focus on presenting their winning application Natura 2000 Bulgaria: New Horizons and the huge outreach achieved within their communication campaign on Natura 2000 as well as facilitating networking between conservation and media stakeholders. Find out more information about this winner's event here.
• The winner of the Cross-border cooperation award, the German Speleological Federation (Germany), is planning an event between the 1 and 4 June 2023 to celebrate their winning application, Evaluate the dark side with the CaveLife app, and to promote the use of the app to a wider audience.  Their festive evening celebrating the Natura 2000 Award will be embedded into a series of workshops, panel discussions and an excursion focused on gypsum karst in Germany and related Natura 2000 sites.  Find out more information about this winning application here.
• The 2022 Citizens’ Award winner Blühendes Österreich (Austria), is planning to hold a local event on 26 June 2023 to celebrate their unusual approach to nature conservation.  It will be celebrated jointly with a workshop on the European nature conservation project "Bioregional Weaving Labs", bringing together various international stakeholders and local, regional and national Austrian authorities. Find out more about this winning application - FLORA: empowering conservation entrepreneurs – here. 
• On 30 June, the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (Portugal) will organise a local event to celebrate winning the Marine conservation prize for Fishermen and seabirds, allies for the sea. The event will be held in Peniche, which is the closest on-land location to the award-winning Natura 2000 site “Ilhas Berlengas”. The organisers will engage with local managers and fishermen to raise awareness about seabird bycatch as well as to demonstrate avoidance measures. Find out more about this winning application here.
• The University of Patras (Greece), winner of the Conservation on land award for the project Adaptation of Eleonora’s falcon to climate change, will celebrate their local event on Skyros Island, on 8-9 July 2023. The agenda foresees meetings with local stakeholders as well as an excursion to the colonies of the project’s target species, Eleonora’s falcon, to witness their successful conservation actions firsthand. Find out more about this winning application here.

Further information on each event will be published on the Award website, as well as in future editions of the Natura 2000 Award Newsflash, as it becomes available. In the meantime, all the 2022 winners impressive achievements are highlighted on the Award website.