Membership
The Nature-GIS network is promoted with the aim to create an operative framework at a European level among partners with different expertise in the field of protected areas and Geographical Information.
The Nature-GIS partnership reflects on one side the need to get together experts and users in the thematic domain of the protected areas with organisations leaders in Geographical Information and in technology for accessing information; a partnership able to assess and address methods and tools for managing GI in the complex scenarios of the "Protected Areas" with their various characterisations. That enables to structure the project as a thematic interdisciplinary sectoral network.
On the other side, the network, even if European in dimension intends to ensure a local impact for a wide benefit at this level on operators and on the stakeholders of the protected areas.
In this perspective and with an approach "local to global" and "global to local" characterising a network built at different levels (see also Figure below), the Nature-GIS partnership has been defined considering national actors, the "Network Developers" able to guarantee, involving also key local operators and stakeholders, a countrywide analysis of needs and functional requirements and to provide a wide diffusion of the project results at a National level.
In a wider European perspective, particular attention has been devoted to the participation of organisation coming from Adhesion Countries, with the specific objectives i) to create a real pan-European common interest and approach for an important issue for the human life as the protected areas are, ii) to support the enlargement and the adaptation of the European policies for protected areas to these countries.
The Nature-GIS Members have been selected to ensure comprehensive coverage of the problems and issues arising in relation to protected areas and GIS, and bring with them a wide spectrum of skills and expertise. Key membership categories are: