A week packed with exchanges, networking and inspiring insights lies behind us, focusing on the question of how rangers can be strengthened in their vital role: as a bridge between nature conservation and people, especially local communities. The 6th European Ranger Congress (ERC) brought together more than 260 rangers and conservationists from 34 countries in the Carpathians last week. Join us as we look back.
- Networking, inspiring, enabling rangers to build bridges
- ERF General Assembly: new board and honours for leaving members
- Statements from participants on the 6th ERC
For five days, the Fundata resort amidst the snow-covered Piatra Craiului and Bucegi mountains in Brașov County was the setting for Europe’s leading event for the international ranger community. Under the theme ‘Rangers – the Voice of Nature: Building Bridges between Local Communities and Nature Conservation’, the European Ranger Federation, together with its congress partners and on-site hosts, the Romanian Ranger Association (RRA) and the Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC), welcomed rangers and conservationists from all over Europe and even from overseas.
Networking, inspiring and enabling rangers to build bridges
The overarching goal of this 6th ERC was to connect, inspire and empower rangers to tackle the greatest conservation challenge of our time: balancing nature conservation with human interests. Rangers are the ones who implement conservation goals such as the United Nations’ 30×30 target of protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land and water areas by 2030. They are the interface between people, especially local communities around protected areas, and nature. For this vital role, appropriate, adequate training and support is extremely important.
As our outgoing ERF Vice President Ilan Yeger reports from his own experience:
“I have been a ranger for 34 years. When I started, I was dropped into the sea to swim. I mainly did law enforcement. But I wasn’t trained to engage with people to make the rules I enforced understandable. I destroyed bridges instead of building them.”
Even today, rangers still lack the appropriate training to get people on board, said Mihai Zotta, FCC: “Our rangers are the first to be called to the scene when there are conflicts, for example with bears. They need to be trained not only to deal with this, but also to involve people in nature conservation from the outset.”
Florin Halastauan, RRA and new ERF President, adds:
“Rangers often come from local communities, they are ideal for building bridges to nature conservation. But they lack the training to know how to do this.“
The more than a dozen keynotes and presentations at the congress, as well as a variety of workshops on exemplary aspects of rangers’ role as bridge builders between local communities and nature conservation, provided inspiration, solutions and opportunities to discuss how rangers can prepare for this crucial role, network and receive the necessary support.
Not least, it is the spirit of togetherness despite all regional differences, for which international ranger meetings are known, that strengthens rangers. It was immediately noticeable with the first arrivals on 6 October: new contacts were made, reunions celebrated, and discussions about the common goal of protecting our remaining natural treasures for future generations were soon in full swing.
Twinning partnerships: networking programme based on “Rangers for Rangers”
Consequently, the first meetings were devoted to gatherings of representatives from our member organisations and delegates from our twinning programmes for rangers from two different countries. With reports on how they are implementing this programme in order to learn from each other and multiply conservation skills, the delegates from our existing twinning partnerships between Israeli and German rangers, Moldovan volunteer rangers and Romanian rangers, Portuguese and Spanish rangers, and British and Georgian rangers sparked lively discussions about this programme and its practical implementation.
With a new twinning agreement between rangers from Moldova, where volunteer rangers only recently established the first national ranger association, and Czech rangers, exchange, mutual learning and support among rangers was one of the highlights on the last day of the congress.
Workshops spark ERF’s future programme to network and enable rangers
From the first day of the conference onwards, we got down to business: Nine workshops served as impulses to empower rangers as mediators between humans and nature. They were asked for their input and experience, while they discussed professionalisation, personal safety and well-being based on the following topics:
- Integrating local people as Volunteers in Conservation
- Working with Junior Rangers
- Digitally monitoring and reporting wildlife and human activity using SMART
- Environmental crime prevention: profiling poisoners
- Nature Interpretation using the example of the wild cat‘s return
- Human Wildlife conflicts and bison reintroduction
- Well-being and mental health for Rangers
- Furthering professional standards of Rangers
- National Parks: how they benefit people and protect nature
The results of these workshops will form an important basis for our future work to connect rangers and train them to tackle the most pressing challenges in their fieldwork.
Keynotes from rangers, prominents and conservationists inspire discussions
As part of the framework programme, Romanian Minister for the Environment, Diana Buzoianu, and other Romanian environmental officials gave welcoming speeches.
“You are the voice of nature. My role is to give you my voice. Communities only develop together with nature protection. Thank you for building the necessary bridges.”
Diana Buzoianu, Minister for Environment of Romania
Also Barbara and Christoph Promberger, the founders of our congress partner FCC, delivered inspiring keynote speeches. Their pioneering work aims at establishing a European Yellowstone in the congress region: the largest national park on our continent, designed to sustainably protect the outstanding value of Europe’s largest contiguous forest area with its high density of primeval forests. With numerous initiatives to involve the local population in this goal, this multi-award-winning initiative is truly groundbreaking for our congress.
From ranger to ranger: this subtitle ran through the following presentations on how the integration of the local population enriches the work of rangers, on rangers in business and politics, on the challenges faced by marine rangers and rangers involved in firefighting. ‘The speakers hit the nail on the head: it takes a lot of trust, often years to build it, to work as a ranger with local communities, but also with other actors in society and politics,’ confirmed many of the rangers in the audience after the presentations.
Rangers donate more than 4,000 Euros for fallen rangers
And since rangers often know from their own experience the challenges their colleagues face, the determination to support each other was palpable throughout the congress. Whether through direct donations to our partner, the Thin Green Line Foundation (TGLF), for fallen rangers, such as those who tragically lost their lives in firefighting operations across Europe this year. Through contributions and the purchase of tickets for the 6th ERC Ranger Raffle, the proceeds of which also go to the ranger aid organisation. Or through in-kind donations such as the many Icelandic ranger uniforms that we were able to offer at the congress for very little money. By the end of the congress, we had distributed almost all of the equipment donations. And we counted more than €4,000 from the raffle, coin auction and donation campaign to support the families of deceased rangers through the TGLF.
Field trips: Rangering in Făgăraș Mountains and Piatra Craiului National Park
On field trip day of the 6th ERC, participants explored five exemplary sites of FCC’s work and Piatra Craiului National Park to familiarise themselves with the work of rangers in the Romanian Carpathians, represented by our congress partner, the RRA. One excursion, for example, took them to some of the FCC’s 18,000 square metre tree nurseries, which were created to renature the many deforested areas in the region, and followed the tracks of bison that have been reintroduced to the area by the foundation.
ERF General Assembly: new board and honours for leaving members
Every European Ranger Congress is marked by the election of its Executive Committee during the General Assembly. So we bid farewell to all Executive Committee members who are not standing for re-election and payed tribute to their tireless work in supporting, networking and promoting rangers: President Urs Reif, Vice-President Ilan Yeger, Financial Officer Michael Großmann and Project Officer Adam Turner, who have contributed significantly to our current status as an influential representative body for our ranger colleagues across the continent with more than 50 member organisations. Our deepest thanks for your great contribution!
To this end, we can continue to count on the excellent and dedicated work of Maria Gurscaia as Secretary, Borja Díaz as Training Officer and Lars Scharfe, now Vice-President (formerly Administrative Officer). And we are delighted to welcome Florin Halastauan from Romania as our new President, José Maria Jiménez Cañete from Spain as Financial Officer and Vitor Casalinho from Portugal as Project Officer. All of them bring a wealth of experience as rangers and networkers with them. Welcome aboard!
New Partnerships from ranger to ranger to multiply conservation efforts
Two brand new partnerships are another result of the General Assembly: the new twinning agreement between Moldova’s first ranger association PA Environmental Voluntary Inspectors “Rangers” and the Czech Ranger Association with the support of the Czech nature conservation organisation Arnika, was signed. As a partnership and sponsorship programme, it will further develop the ranger profession in Moldova and provide a platform for mutual learning from practices and experiences in connecting local communities and their cultural heritage with nature conservation.
The second partnership concerns us as European Ranger Federation itself, which will now be a partner of the Latin American Ranger Federation (LARF). Our common goal is to support the training of rangers, promote the exchange of best practices of nature conservation in regions that are vital for planetary health, such as the Amazon, but also in Europe’s biodiversity hotspots, improve the safety and well-being of rangers, and give them an even stronger voice by speaking with one voice.
Honoring Bob Reid, founding father of the global ranger familiy
A voice that could not be missing was conveyed to the audience by Kate Elliott, Chair of the Scottish Ranger Association (SCRA), who read a letter from the legendary Bob Reid to the international ranger community. Prior to this, the International Ranger Federation (IRF), the ERF and the SCRA had cordially invited him in a letter of tribute: Bob Reid not only contributed to the formation of the global ranger family by founding our umbrella organisation, the IRF, but also played a key role in shaping the Ranger Association of his native Scotland and provided us, the ERF, with important foundations.
Congress Declaration reading, Ranger raffle – and party!
What followed layd the foundation for one of the most important outcomes of this 6th European Ranger Congress: the reading of the draft ‘Carpathian Declaration’ by our ERF Council member Ian Brooker. It is a call to action for governments, European institutions, ranger employers and the communities that rangers serve to provide adequate funding and equipment for rangers across Europe. Because only on this basis can they fulfil their important role as bridge builders between local communities, visitors and nature conservation. We are currently incorporating the feedback from the participants and will publish the final congress declaration shortly.
Once the statutes and amendments (soon to be available here) had been approved, the party began: it kicked off with the Ranger raffle, largely supervised and organised by the experienced Ian Brooker, which this time even had a previously secret prize to be won: free participation in the World Ranger Congress 2027 in Argentina! There were also auctions: the Ranger coin issued for the 6th ERC had a special minting that could be auctioned off for a multi-day tour with the Polish Rangers in their home reserve. The Swiss and Spanish Rangers won the bid, congratulations! The outcomes and those of another special minting that was auctioned off support our work as the ERF – we are very grateful for this generous support.
Huge thanks to all 6th ERC participants and to our partners!
Now the rangers and conservationists could really celebrate, accompanied by traditional music and dancing from a local band. And all that remains for us to say is: Many, many thanks to all participants for this fantastic congress! You truly deserve to be celebrated for your commitment to nature. We are taking away an incredible number of ideas that we can build on in the coming years.
Below: the core organising team behind the 6th European Ranger Congress (from left): Mihai Zotta (FCC), Alin Ivascu (Romanian Rangers), Iulia Astefanei and Raluca Schiaucu (FCC), Mihai Gligan (President of Romanian Rangers), former ERF Financial Officer Michael Großmann, ERF Secretary Maria Gurscaia and the new ERF President Florin Halastauan (Romanian Rangers)
Above all: a big thank you to our congress partners, the Romanian Ranger Association and the Foundation Conservation Carpathia, who worked tirelessly and perfectly on site to make the 6th European Ranger Congress such an unforgettable event!
And we would also like to express our deep gratitude to our partners and private supporters, who financed the participation of many rangers with little means. This contributed a big deal to the diversity of countries and the range of ranger expertise represented at the congress.
Statements from participants on the 6th ERC
Finally, we would like to let some of the rangers themselves talk about their expectations for the congress – we are pretty sure that they were met. Listen for yourself!
editorial work for this
content is supported by
