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One protected area at a time, Sweden and Norway have been expanding the use of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation (http://www.conservationmeasures.org/CMP/Products.cfm) to improve collaboration and develop sound management plans. This work started in 2008 when Foundations of Success (FOS) guided a Swedish team and a wide array of stakeholders through a planning process for Kosterhavets National Park, the first national marine park in Sweden. Participants from the Norwegian government agency, Fylkesmannen, then applied the principles to Ytre Hvaler National Park, an area adjacent to Kosterhavets. This led to formal cross-border collaboration.

Both parks were officially opened in September 2009 by the royal families of Sweden and Norway as their nations’ first marine transboundary park. This event took place as part of the 2009 EUROPARC Conference, during which FOS also held a joint workshop together with Eurosite about ‘Improving the Practice of Conservation through Adaptive Management’.

Based on the successful Scandinavian experience, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency worked with FOS to help apply the Open Standards to a network of five marine areas in the Baltic Sea. The use of the Open Standards as a common language has been instrumental in shaping learning and collaboration across these critical protected areas.

For more information on FOS in Europe, please contact Ilke Tilders at Ilke@FOSonline.org.

Foundations of Success Newsletter – January 2010

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