FSUE Conservation initiative

[nickwilliams]

Message from the FSUE European Caves Protection workgroup /
Contact : protection@eurospeleo.org

Attn. Please forward this email to All cavers and clubs in your country and your forums/networks interested in Caves Protection


Dear Caves Friends,

Our common passion to the underground makes cave protection an important topic for each caver in our European speleological community, as we all want to protect the caves and karst areas for the next generations. Some cavers already engaged themselves on their own in the past, some federations have done a good job work in their country up to now, and.....

.... For the achievement to work on Caves and Karst Protection atn a European Level the European Cave Protection Commission of the European Federation (FSUE) teamed up as a workgroup during the last General Assembly Meeting in Visby, Sweden. For the moment this workgroup consists of members from Luxembourg, Sweden, France, UK, Greece, Romania and Germany. Among others several objectives have been set up :

- Creating a real European Protection Workgroup (with members from all European countries),

- Setting up the "EuroSpeleo Protection Label" for exemplary cave environmental actions,

- Inventorying the existing legislation/actions in each country on cave protection,

- Setting up European actions and try to finance them at European level (EU Programs like Life, Natura 2000, etc),

- etc. ...

If you are interested in taking part in the work of the commission, or you know somebody who might be interested in, or you simply want to exchange some ideas etc., please contact us at the following address : protection@eurospeleo.org . The more people work together the stronger the stronger will be the work of Cave Protection at European level.

In addition, you are all invited to attend our first meeting at "ALPINE underground 2007" - the first international symposium on alpine speleology -, which takes place from November 9th to the 11th in Ramsau near Berchtesgaden, Germany (information/registration <http://www.vdhk.de/>www.vdhk.de -- button "untertage"). The aim of this conference is to exchange with public authorities and non governmental organisations and sensitise them for nature protection on the issues of caves and karst areas. A resolution on the protection of alpine karst areas will be announced there and some more highlights ...

We all enjoy caving every weekend, let's work together to protect what fascinates us the most....the underground.

For the European Caves Protection workgroup,

Christiane Grebe
protection@eurospeleo.org
www.fsue.org

P.S.: We would like to ask everyone to provide information about green sickness / lampenflora / maladie verte in show caves. In the weekend 10-11 November there is the 2nd Meeting for the Protection & Management of Showcaves in Greece ...and cave lighting is a major problem in almost every Greek show cave. Please send your information to <mailtorotection@eurospeleo.org>protection@eurospeleo.org.

 

[nickwilliams]

Message from the FSUE European Cave Protection Workgroup /
Message de la part du Groupe de travail europ?en FSUE sur la Protection des Cavit?s
Contact : protection@eurospeleo.org

Dear Caves Friends,

Creating a real European Protection Workgroup with members from all countries in the FSUE, that's one of our big goals for the European Cave Protection Workgroup. Till now the group consists of members from Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Sweden, France, UK, Greece, Romania and Germany. But our basis should be to have at least one member of each country...more help is always welcome. In several e-mails with cavers from all over Europe I found out that cave and karst areas are facing numerous dangers in the different countries as the existing legislation is quite different from country to country.

So the reason why I send you all, the official representatives and delegates of your countries,  this e-mail today, is to encourage you and the members of your federations to participate in the European Cave Protection Workgroup to create a big community with cavers from many different cave and karst areas. Especially our caving community has the unique chance to consist of people from many different languages, cultures and ideas, but nevertheless we are one big community as it is the passion to the ground that combines us all.

Please contact us, when you know, who will represent your country in our workgroup. Our caves existed long before the first caver discoverd them and they should rest safe for the future cavers. See also our forum: http://fsue.ffspeleo.fr/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=361#p361.

In the workgroup we agreed on, that one of our first steps is to inventory the existing legislation and actions in each country on cave protection. Therefore we kindly ask every federation to provide special informations on that. If you have further questions on that, just send us an e-mail: protection@eurospeleo.org.

And again, you are all invited to attend our first meeting (10th November) at "ALPINE underground 2007" - the first international conference on alpine speleology -, which takes place from November 9th to the 11th in Ramsau near Berchtesgaden, Germany (information/registration www.vdhk.de -- button "untertage"). The aim of this conference is to exchange with public authorities and non governmental organisations and sensitise them for nature protection on the issues of caves and karst areas. A resolution on the protection of alpine karst areas will be announced there and some more highlights ...

For the European Cave Protection Workgroup,

Christiane Grebe
protection@eurospeleo.org
www.fsue.org

 

[nickwilliams]

Thank you to broadcast this call widely to all the Natural Parks and Protected Areas in your country

Attn. All Natural Parks and Protected Areas in Europe

Dear Colleagues,

Following the 1st edition of the European Symposium "Alpine Underground" that was held last year in Germany in the Berchtesgaden Park (see http://www.hoehlenkataster-hessen.de/untertage/indexE.html , proceedings available at : Untertage2007@freenet.de), The European Speleological Federation (FSUE) and the Regional Natural Park of Vercors have the pleasure to invite you to send your proposals of communications/presentations for the 2nd Symposium "Alpine Underground" which will be held in Lans-en-Vercors (France) near Grenoble, from the 27th to the 29th of August 2008. This second edition will be particularly focused on the "Protection and the Valorization of the Underground Environment" including caves and karsts inside the Natural Parks and other Protected Areas in every European countries.

We kindly send you this "Call for Communications" informing that you can present the work you have carried out on the underground environement management in the frame of the protected area you work in. The proposal should be submitted by the 29th of February 2008 to articles.vercors2008@ffspeleo.fr , specifying that your communication is for the "Alpine Underground Symposium". You can make a pre-registration by sending only the title or summary of your communication + 5 key-words to the same address. Your final article should follow the following pattern : http://vercors2008.eu/example-EN.rtf
All the submission details are on : http://vercors2008.eu/propose.htm#propose
It is also possible to present a poster. In this case, the requirements are the same as for a communication.

For those who can come before, the 4th European Congress of Speleology "Vercors 2008" will be held on site during the whole week from the 23rd of August 2008 and you are welcome to participate to its programm :
Communications program : http://vercors2008.eu/events/sessions.htm#section1
Animations program : http://vercors2008.eu/events/animations.htm
If can come only one day, we suggest you to come on the 28th of August, since a Round-Table on this specific topic will be held on that day.

We also encourage you to register to the symposium as soon as possible since the participation to the symposium is, up to mid-February at 38/25 euros, and it gives you access to the whole program over the week. The registration details are on : http://vercors2008.eu/registration.htm#contenu

Should you have any further questions, please let us know at contact.vercors2008@ffspeleo.fr
Looking forward to receiving your communications proposals,
Kind Regards,

Olivier Vidal
Secr. General FSUE
+33 / 6 81 61 16 70

Email : <>contact.vercors2008@ffspeleo.fr
Website Vercors 2008 : <>http://www.vercors2008.eu
Circula(i)r(e)s : <>http://www.vercors2008.eu/presentation.htm#circulars
Website FSUE : <>www.fsue.org
Forums : <>http://fsue.org/forums/

 

[nickwilliams]

Message from Christian Grebe:

Dear caving friends,

The European Speleological Federation (FSUE) and its European Cave Protection Commission (ECPC) is very pleased to announce the launching of the Call for the EuroSpeleo Protection Label available here:
http://fsue.org/commission/protection/eurospeleo-protection-label-ni02.rtf
(deadline is 10th of June 2008 for applications).

During Vercors 2008 one unique qualitative cave protection project form all over Europe will be awarded for the first time with this European award.

The aim of the EuroSpeleo Protection Label is to support the active cave protection in the speleo clubs,  commitees, national commissions, etc, all over Europe and to share this knowledge European wide.

We as cavers are combined by our  passion for the underground and by the natural wish to preserve and protect what we discover during our speleological explorations. For this reason many cavers and speleological structures  are inventing specific solutions, which can be shared with the whole European speleological community, in order to adapt these cave protection solutions in other European countries.

The FSUE / ECPC would like to award qualitative projects which can help to find better solutions for cave protection among the speleological community. And this award should be also an financial support to continue this important work that you carry out in your country, because we all need to preserve the speleological heritage for the next generations.

Best speleological wishes,

Christiane Grebe
Head of Commission
European Cave Protection Commission
F?d?ration Sp?l?ologique de l'Union Europ?enne (FSUE)
e-mail: protection@eurospeleo.org

 

[nickwilliams]

Dear caves friends,

The FSUE European Cave Protection Commission (ECPC) organises during Vercors 2008 the 1st EuroSpeleo Protection Symposium, which will take place from 24th August to 29th August with one day break on the 26th for the GAM of the FSUE. Mikel Irujo Amezaga, Member of the European Parliament, will patronise the symposium and also participate in the congress. You can always find the latest news and more information about us under http://fsue.ffspeleo.fr/commission/protection/index_commission.htm

This symposium shall be a platform for speleologists, representatives of NGOs and other public authorities to discuss about strategies and co-operations for cave and karst protection, to plan future actions, to exchange knowledge etc. on an international level. The European Speleological Congress is a fantastic occasion to bring together speleologists from all over Europe and we would like to use this opportunity, too.

For this symposium, the proceedings and future publications of our commission we are looking for YOU - creative speleologists, who enjoy designing and developing new things, to create our commission logo. Be as creative as you want - all ideas are welcome - and send your proposal for the new logo of the European Cave Protection Commission latest till the 15th June 2008 to protection@eurospeleo.org. Thank you! The final logo, which will be voted by the commission members, will be presented on the first day of the symposium together with the designer.

Furthermore we would like to organise as part of the symposium an exhibition about cave protection in European countries - good and bad examples. For that reason we kindly ask all clubs or federations to contribute posters for this exhibition. Maximum poster dimension shall be 75 x 120 cm (width x height). Please send us a mail till the 1st July with a pdf-version of your poster as attachment. This pdf will be, assuming that you agree, published on our homepage for a later download.

We hope to see you all in Vercors!


For the FSUE European Cave Protection Commission,

Christiane Grebe
Head of Commission
protection@eurospeleo.org
www.fsue.org

 

[underground]

Nick,

Any chance of a precis of the above - bit of background etc. would be nice also...

 

[nickwilliams]

We would like to announce you that in the European Parliament nowadays a written declaration on Protection of Caves as cultural, natural and environmental Heritage will be published by Mikel Irujo (Member of the European Parliement), Rebecca Harms and Csaba Tabajdi. This declaration was worked out by the "Karst environment and Cave Protection Forum" of the European Parliament, initiated by MEP Mikel Irujo Amezaga and his assisstant Iria Epalza this year on January. Jean-Pierre Bartholeyns (President of the UIS Department of  Protection and Management), B?rbel Vogel (President of the German Speleological Federation) and Christiane Grebe (Head of the European Cave Protection Commission of the FSUE) could take part in this forum.

In the Basque Country was recently discovered a palaeontological cave from the lower Magdalenian period, called PRAILEAITZ. The Parliament would like to help preserving these type of caves and invited us to a meeting to compare and exchange ideas. But during this meeting the needs of cave and karst protection in whole Europe were discussed and the all people agreed that a written declaration about cave protection is needed in the EU Parliament, as there is no existing legislation about this part of our environment.

As attachment you can find the written declaration published internally in the EU Parliament this week. This is a very important step, maybe the most important step since long time, to protect the speleological heritage in Europe, that's why we would like you to take part in this work. Please read this short declaration and please send us your comments, remarks and also, if you have any ideas, your proposals for supporting this cave protection motion in Europe at protection@eurospeleo.org

If this written declaration can achieves in 4 months to have at least 394 signatures from the EU deputees, it will be transformed into a report and will be voted. If we achieve these aims, there could be an oppotunity for cave protection at European level, including means from the EU. It is a long process and we need your support for this.

This forum is about to organise a public campaign for Brussels to get at least 394 signatures and for this we need good cave and karst pictures, texts for leaflets etc. Please help us, it is very important. You can contact us under protection@eurospeleo.org

Our very best speleo wishes to you all,

Christiane Grebe
Head of European Cave Protection Commission (FSUE)

Jean-Pierre Bartholeyns
President of the UIS Department of  Protection and Management

 

[SamT]

As nick requested - all discussion/rants etc etc moved to new topic.