The Nature Returns project kicked off in Pico Island with the training on Conservation Standards. This methodology will be used for reviewing the management plan of the Pico Island Nature Park, to be developed until the end of 2024.

The team for the project and management planning is now established and brings together staff members from the Nature Park, the Division of Protected Areas of the government of the Azores and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Vineyard Landscape of Pico. The training course ran from September 25th to 28th, 2023, and included the participation of the Regional Secretary for the Environment of the Azores, Alonso Miguel.

The Pico Island Nature Park is one of the five pilot sites for testing this experimental and novel approach of bringing together management of protected areas and innovative businesses. This is the very first team established in the project and will be followed by similar activities in Croatia (Lonjsko Polje NP), Montenegro (Ulcinj Salina NP), North Macedonia (Shar Mountain NP) and Sao Tome and Principe (Principe NP).

The team is now skilled to develop the management plan by using Conservation Standards, the methodology adopted by Nature Returns to develop and monitor protected areas’ management plans that include business solutions for the identified pressures and threats. The examples used in this training course already allow identifying invasive alien species as the main threats that will require business solutions. The local incubation centers of the island and the Pico association of entrepreneurs have been contacted and will be key stakeholders to involved in the project.