The 6th Annual Europarc Sustainable Tourism Charter Network meeting was held June 2nd to 5th, hosted by the Sierra Nevada National Park in Andalucía. There are now 58 Charter Parks, with 11 more ‘candidates’ for 2009/2010. At the meeting, there were 143 delegates from Spain, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, Finland, Norway and UK. There are now 175 Charter Partner businesses across 9 Protected Areas in 3 countries - of which Bowland’s 31 are the only ones in the UK. The Europarc Charter Network is starting to look at how this growing group can be linked together for advice, support, ideas and eventually promotion and marketing.

The Forest of Bowland was mentioned several times as an example of ‘best practice’ in developing Sustainable Tourism. Sierra Nevada is about the same size as Bowland and similar as an upland area where traditional pastoral agriculture has been struggling and the visitor economy is seen as a means to economic regeneration and community support. Tourism has grown significantly in the last 10 years since the National Park was set up. Sierra Nevada has had considerable financial aid, encouragement and even direction from the Ministries of both Tourism and Employment and Training of the Junta de Andalucía (regional government).

One big difference with Bowland is the altitude. Sierra Nevada is all 5,000ft above sea level. In fact, one of the study tours to look at conservation, re-forestation (replacing pine plantations with native holm oak) and wild life protection included a climb to the summit of Mulhacèn – at 3,482mt (11,300ft) the highest point in the Iberian Peninsula. This certainly one of the peak achievements by the Forest of Bowland team – see above photo!