Natural England - The European Heathlands Network

The European Heathlands Network

The European Heathlands Network has been established to enable all persons involved or interested in ecological research, conservation of wildlife, and in policy formulation and implementation in relation to European heathlands to meet, to stimulate discussion, to promote communication, to further the understanding of heathland ecosystems and to disseminate information as widely as possible.

Lofoten Islands, Norway

The development of the Workshops

The European Heathland Workshops developed after a meeting of French and British Heathland Ecologists convened by the French and British Ecological Societies and held at the University of Rennes Field Station at Paimpont, Brittany in July 1979.

The interest that this meeting generated led to the 1st Workshop which was held in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1982. Further Workshops followed, organised in:

  • The Netherlands (1985);

  • Denmark (1988);

  • France (1992);

  • Spain (1995);

  • South Norway (1998);

  • Orkney, UK (2001);

  • Germany and Poland (2003);

  • Belgium (2005);

  • Norway (2007);

  • UK (2009) and

  • Spain and Portugal (2011).

At first, the Workshops were primarily meetings of heathland research ecologists, but as much of this research is closely linked to conservation and management the attendance at the Workshops has widened to include all interested in heathlands, their ecology and their conservation. Those attending the Workshops now include research scientists, conservation managers, and both regional and national administrators.

The structure of the Workshops

  • There shall be a small Standing Committee with representatives from various countries that will ensure the continuation of the Workshops.

  • A person shall be appointed to maintain a Register of Participants and of those interested in heathlands.

  • There shall be a representative for each country who will help maintain contact with the participants in that country.

The function of the Network Committee

  1. To hold a series of meetings at approximately 2-3 year intervals in different countries within the European heathland region. The purpose of these meetings will be to provide an informal forum for persons actively involved either in the scientific, management or policy formulation aspects of heathland. Locations will be chosen to reflect the diversity of European heathland, to see examples of various approaches to heathland use and management, to visit sites of research programmes, or any combination of these.

  2. To maintain and circulate a Register of Workshop participants and others sharing the similar interests in order to facilitate communication between them. This will form the European Heathland Network.

Workshop mission

The mission of the European Heathland Workshops will be:

  1. To provide a means by which expertise on heathland ecology, conservation and management can be brought together and made available when required to decision-makers, such as those in the European Union, in National and Local Governments, in planning bodies and in conservation organisations.

  2. To promote the collaborative study of heathland ecology, of past and present land uses and of types of heathland management and to provide a scientific basis for conservation and future use. The Workshops will identify gaps in existing knowledge and to promote action to fill them, including where appropriate the development of interaction with other similar groups such as those concerned with peatlands, coastal systems and pastoralism.

  3. To support, when requested, suitable applications to funding agencies.

Standing Committee

Dr Sally Power (Convenor) – Imperial College, UK

Dr Isabel Alonso – Natural England, UK

Dr Geert de Blust - Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Belgium

Dr Leonor Calvo – University of Leon, Spain

Prof Bernard Clement – University of Rennes1, France

Prof Charles Gimingham – (retired) UK

Prof Werner Härdtle – University of Luneburg, Germany

Prof Peter Emil Kaland – University of Bergen, Norway

Rita Merete Buttenschøn - University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Prof Andrzej Nienartowicz - Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland

Dr Jacques de Smidt – (retired) The Netherlands

Prof. Nigel Webb – (retired) UK