Aims

The aims of the network are to establish links with conservation organisations, national parks and nature reserves in other countries of the EU and to enable groups of UK citizens to travel (by train, minibus or boat - this is a no-fly operation) to work with these partners to carry out practical conservation management or species monitoring and to attract local people to join them as volunteers.

Through our new traineeship scheme, we aim to develop far greater involvement with sustainable agricultural and food-producing enterprises in our partner countries as we believe that only through these can nature conservation be viable in the long term. We also believe that there are likely to be better prospects for employment (or self-employment) for our participants in this area of interface between High Nature Value farming and wildlife conservation.

Not only does our programme help all the partners by sharing the burden of environmental management, these visits will also provide increased motivation for the EuCAN participants to become more involved in conservation activities in their own localities in the UK.

We hope the EuCAN project will lead to a productive exchange of ideas, expertise and resources with the accompanying social, cultural and political benefits at the community level. Our participants acquire a much better understanding of nature conservation on a European scale as well as training in survey skills, species identification and the use of power tools and handtools. Through our placements, our participants become better equipped in the increasingly competitive jobs market in this field.