On Friday 3 February in Rocca di Mezzo (Aq), a press conference was held, sponsored by the Park Authority at the headquarters of the Sirente Velino Regional Park, on the occasion of the launch of the Erasmus+ Sport SOS PARKS Project “Sustainable Sport in the Parks”. The project was born from a cooperation between three European countries, Italy, Austria and Romania and involves four organizations in total: the Coop. AMBECO’ and the Ass. ERCI TEAM ONLUS of Avezzano, Environmental Education Centers of the Abruzzo Region, the INNOVATIVE EDUCATION CENTER organization for Austria and DOOR 2 OUTDOOR for Romania. Numerous sports organizations took part in the event and have been carrying out their activities for years in the Sirente Velino Park area, organizing events of national and international fame, also present was the Pro-loco of Celano and representatives of national sports associations.

The project emerged from the desire to combine a high level of environmental awareness in outdoor sports participation in the region. One of the main deliverables of the project will be to identify guidelines for sporting events in protected green areas aimed at making sporting events held within parks and protected areas more sustainable, investigating the impacts products on the environment, placing environmental education at the center as a tool for communicating environmental sustainability. The project also envisages the establishment of a “Team of European Experts” for the dissemination and updating of the guidelines which will be disseminated, promoted and may be adopted by European Parks, as a tool for the dissemination of good practices for the protection of the environment. All the protagonists of sporting events, from the organizers to the participants up to the communities of the park territories, through the Guidelines, will be informed and trained on vertuous behaviors and good practices to be adopted to make sporting events more sustainable.

The project envisages a program of sporting events to be held in the three partner countries, with the aim of implementing the good practices of the Guidelines, with an emphasis on the involvement of the communities and the various target groups that will be involved in environmental education activities: sports organizations, schools, families, local communities.

The project intends to continue the European path, already undertaken by the Sirente Velino Park with the adoption of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, with a view to developing new network projects with the various local and European realities, to contribute to economic and social development more sustainable, in compliance with the environmental values ​​that characterize our territories.

More information: www.erciteam.it

Contact: Sergio Rozzi info[at]sergiorozzi.it