Today, during Eurosite’s 2014 Annual Meeting in Haarlem (Netherlands), Eurosite members voted in favour of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Eurosite and ECNC-European Centre for Nature Conservation. The MoU is a formal agreement that outlines our commitment to work closely together. Eurosite has already worked with ECNC for a number of years and cooperation between Eurosite and ECNC has continued to increased now that we are based in the same offices in Tilburg. Due to this co-location it became increasingly clear that that there are synergies between the work that the two organisation do and that we could benefit from one another’s expertise. ECNC is a research and policy focused organisations, and this compliments Eurosite’s focus on site management.

ECNC’s President, Prof Dr Mustafa Kemal Yalınkılıç, was present to complete the official signing of the MoU, along with Eurosite’s President, Henkjan Kievit. Eurosite’s Treasurer Matti Määttä, and ECNC’s Executive Director, Rob Wolters, co-signed the MoU. Eurosite members welcomed the MoU warmly and expressed their commitment to the agreement.

The President of the ECNC Land & Sea Group, Hendrik Oosterveld, then congratulated both organisations and gave a short speech stating his commitment to support the cooperation. Hendrik also outlined the benefits that the organisations will gain by being part of this agreement, “together we can meet new challenges, create new energy, be more effective and efficient, and find new funding.”

Pictures of the MoU signing can be found on our Facebook Page.