ecnc type european foundation industry conservation ; sustainable use founded october 1993 tilburg netherlands headquarters reitseplein 3 5037 aa tilburg netherlands key people sir brian unwin kcb rob wolters number of employees 17 comprising 7 nationalities 2014 slogan working for a beautiful europe website www.ecnc.org european centre for nature conservation ecnc is an independent european biodiversity expertise centre for sustainable development based on a foundation structure . ecnc s stated mission is a beautiful europe based on a rich biodiversity healthy ecosystems and sustainable development . the organization promotes an integrated approach for both land and sea and stimulates interaction between science society and policy . contents 1 history 2 areas of work 3 ecnc and ecological connectivity 4 ecnc group 5 organizational structure 6 references history edit in 1993 the european centre for nature conservation was officially launched at the conference conserving europe s natural heritage towards a european ecological network held in maastricht netherlands . 267 participants from 31 european states and 26 international organizations discussed the decline in europe s biological and landscape diversity primarily loss and fragmentation of habitats and deterioration of environmental quality exacerbated by climate change . hrh prince bernhard of the netherlands opened the conference and the state secretary for agriculture nature and food quality of the netherlands mr. j. dzsingisz gabor formally announced ecnc s establishment for european cooperation the exchange of information and expertise is crucial . there are still many gaps to be bridged in connecting the different fragments of information and expertise . there are many networks to be built or strengthened in europe . in order to meet this requirement a private foundation and an international network of well established institutes have taken the initiative to set up the european centre for nature conservation ecnc in tilburg the netherlands . 1 areas of work edit ecnc projects are clustered in six thematic programmes which highlight the relationship between nature and people ; address the business side of biodiversity ; focus on green infrastructure ecological connectivity of nature and land uses ; monitor changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services ; combine international and european policies with regional and local approaches ; cover the natural processes and the role that species play at the landscape scale . ecnc and ecological connectivity edit ecnc led the drafting group for the pan european biological and landscape diversity strategy peblds . the peblds 1994 was the european response to support the implementation of the un convention on biological diversity . the strategy was proposed in the afore mentioned maastricht declaration conserving europe s natural heritage and focuses on stopping and reversing the degradation of biological and landscape diversity values in europe . 2 the pan european ecological network peen was one of the prime objectives of the peblds and a major means for implementing the aim of the strategy for the conservation and management of ecosystems habitats species and landscapes in a perspective of sustainable development . 3 the peen is an internationally agreed approach built upon the ecological network concept . the underlying philosophy of the establishment of the peen is to promote synergy between the existing nature policies land use planning and rural and urban development . 4 ecnc had a political mandate to coordinate the establishment of the peen and used to run the joint secretariat of its expert committee together with the council of europe . the secretariat was creating synergy between the peen and other initiatives promoting the ecological network concept including the global ecological network in the context of the peblds and the european commission programme . 5 whilst the term green infrastructure also referred to as gi has in the past been used to describe natural connected habitats within urban areas with the launch of the eu 2020 european biodiversity headline target and 2050 vision 6 it has been taken forward by the european commission as a much broader and much more complex concept which is emerging as a new and potentially influential policy instrument . gi is viewed as being one of the main tools to tackle threats to biodiversity resulting from habitat fragmentation land use change and loss of habitats . 7 ecnc promotes the implementation of gi and its various components across europe . to do this ecnc continuously explores best practices and actual delivery mechanisms as part of working multifunctional landscapes in which gi is a key element . 8 to contribute to spreading the word about gi among the key stakeholders both policymakers and practitioners and provide them with guidance on how to implement it ecnc in cooperation with ceeweb for biodiversity published the brochure enriching our society through natural solutions why and how to make green infrastructure projects a sustainable answer for ecological social and economic problems the brochure provides information on the policy context a definition some examples and help in thinking in terms of natural solutions and gi projects . 9 ecnc group edit since 2008 ecnc has been involved in an integration process with a number of organizations working under the name ecnc group . the purpose of the grouping is to facilitate and better develop the economic activities of the members by a pooling of resources activities or skills . this will produce better results than the members acting alone . 10 the ecnc group consists of two units biodiversity and nature ecnc and coastal and marine eucc . the members of the ecnc group are ecnc the coastal & marine union eucc and centro mediterr neo eucc . euronatur the naturebureau and eeconet action fund are observers of the ecnc group . in 2009 ecnc and eucc signed a memorandum of cooperation ; a joint board management team and scientific council were formed . the large herbivore foundation joined the ecnc group as from july 2010 and continues under its new name as the large herbivore network under the umbrella of the ecnc group . healthy seas is the first initiative set up by the ecnc group in cooperation with two companies ; aquafil and star sock . organizational structure edit ecnc is a non profit foundation and consists of four bodies which closely interact . the board provides leadership and legitimacy to ecnc s operations . the scientific council is composed of scientific experts who monitor and give advice on the quality of ecnc s activities . the network of currently 51 partners in 27 european countries is an important pool of expertise . the partners consisting of university departments expert centres and government agencies sign a memorandum of cooperation to help achieve the ecnc mission . the secretariat is the coordinating body of ecnc and consists of an international team of 17 people . ecnc s headquarters are located in tilburg netherlands . the organization has a regional office in kleve germany used for training courses small scale seminars and meetings . references edit conserving europe s natural heritage towards a european ecological network g. bennett ed . 1994 http www.peblds.org background document for the fifth ministerial conference environment for europe statement on the pan european ecological network submitted by the council of europe the european centre for nature conservation and the united nations environmental programme kiev ukraine 21 23 may 2003 http www.eeconet.org eeconet http www.ecnc.org peen secretariat european commission our life insurance our natural capital an eu biodiversity strategy to 2020 . communication from the commission to the european parliament the council the economic and social committee and the committee of the regions . com 2011 244 final 2011 . http ec.europa.eu environment nature ecosystems index en.htm http www.ecnc.org projects green infrastructure http www.ecnc.org news300114 http europa.eu legislation summaries internal market businesses company law l26015 en.htm retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title european centre for nature conservation & oldid 627401202 categories biodiversityconservation and environmental foundationsenvironmental organisations based in the netherlandsnon profit organisations based in the netherlandssustainable development navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais edit links this page was last modified on 28 september 2014 at 10 56 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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