Greenhealth

Protected Areas in the European Union represent a fundamental asset for preserving nature and biodiversity and provide multiple benefits in ecosystem services. At the same time, it has also been proven that the COVID pandemic has further emphasized the importance of natural spaces for human well-being, leading to an increased number of visitors to Protected Areas. This has positive effects for Protected Areas as people value them again, but also potentially poses a risk to biodiversity if public use is not managed sustainably.

The improvement of public policies on Protected Areas and the adjustment of Protected Areas management is a necessary step, if we aim to create resilient ecosystems to improve the well-being of all persons living in Europe without jeopardizing the environmental goals.

Objective of the project
The objective of GREENHEALTH is to strengthen the biodiversity of the regions of the European Union by improving the management of European Protected Areas through strengthening links and strategic and operational cooperation between biodiversity protection and human health and well-being.

The GREENHEALTH partnership
Lead Partner:

Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia – General Directorate of the Natural Environment, Spain

Partners:

Podkarpackie Region (Poland)
Public Institution for the management of Protected Natural Areas of Dubrovnik-Neretva County (Croatia)
The Prešov Self-Governing Region (Slovakia)
Kullaberg Nature Reserve (Sweden)
Northern and Western Regional Assembly (Ireland)

Advisory partner
EUROPARC Federation

Duration and budget
The project duration is 4 years. 01/03/23 – 31/05/27 and is split into 2 phases

  • Core phase of 3 years. Exchange of experiences (identification of good practices, interregional learning, trainings…)
  • Follow-up phase 1 year. Follow-up of the results of the exchange of experience

    • Total value of the project amounts to €1,745,776 with a total co-financing of the Interreg Europe Programme of €1,367,745.20

    Core phase workplan in a nutshell

  • Identify, select and transfer best practices among the regions (Development of regional studies).
  • Capacity building sessions related with the Healthy Parks, Healthy People programme and toolkit
  • Formation of local living labs with the participation of regional and local stakeholders (Partners, responsible organizations for protected areas and health policies, academia representatives, citizensand associated policy authorities…). These groups will be set from the beginning of the project and will meet once per semester.
  • Organization of 3 Interregional Learning Workshops for the transfer of best practices.
  • Project meetings and study visits to learn about the different regional territorial contexts and decide with of the best practices visited are most suitable to be transferred into our own context.
  • Start the policy instruments improvements.

    • Follow-up phase workplan in a nutshell

  • Monitoring of the improvements in the policy instruments
  • Implementation of a pilot action (if agreed by the partnership), as a small scale test of some good practices discovered
  • “Online green and healthy coffee breaks” to monitor the implementation of the action plans at local level and the transfer of good practices
  • Consolidation of Local Living Labs , continuation of periodic meetings between stakeholders

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    Twitter: https://twitter.com/IE_GREENHEALTH

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/InterregEurope_GREENHEALTH/