MANAGEMENT & PROTECTION SYSTEMS

PROTECTED NATURAL AREAS:

Pilot application of Environmental Management Systems in Protected Natural Areas

The Project "Pilot Application of Environmental Management Systems in Protected Natural Areas", promoted by the Ministry of the Environment and entrusted to the ENEA - the New Technologies, Energy and Environment - for the realization of a Program Agreement, the objective was to apply an Environmental Management System to the organizations that manage the parks.

The experimentation was started in the Circeo National Park and in the Po River Park in the Vercelli-Alexandrian stretch of the Piedmont Region because these parks are medium-sized, have well-established organizational structures and, within them, representative economic activities are carried out with respect to those generally found in protected areas.

The ENEA, a public research body, carrying out the project will help the Parks to develop their Environmental Management Systems in collaboration with local authorities and economic operators.
Essential conditions for the success of the project are the sharing and active participation of all those involved, Park Authority, Local Administrations, Trade Associations and companies.
To raise awareness and involve the people and organizations that live and work in the Po Park and in the Circeo Park, the project also includes interventions in terms of communication and training.

Of the two documents below, the first provides information on the Environmental Management System, the EMAS regulation, the standards for sustainable forest management, etc. and illustrates the application model of the ISO 14001 standard for the environmental improvement of protected areas; the second illustrates the first results achieved with the Circeo National Park and the Po River Park as part of the "Quality parks" project for environmental certification in protected areas.

The first document presents some extracts of particular interest.

	Protected areas and voluntary tools for sustainable development
	The application guideline of the ISO 14001 standard to develop the Environmental Management System in a protected area: summary of the application model
	Why an Environmental Management System to improve a protected area?