The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) has announced that the first of its online project votes for 2025 is now open! The EOCA is an initiative by the European outdoor industry with the objective of protecting the wild places we all care so passionately about.
EOCA members, as well as members of the public, are invited to join the vote to help EOCA select the first three projects to receive funding. They are all doing vital work to conserve and restore wild places, prioritising work to mitigate against the biodiversity and climate emergencies. Working in a range of threatened habitats and landscapes, the shortlist has been grouped into three categories: Forest, Mountain and Wild Places, to help describe the location of the work that is being carried out.
Catherine Savidge, Joint General Manager of EOCA said,
“All the projects seeking our support are looking to carry out vital work to address urgent conservation issues. As ever, the quality of the shortlisted applications has been extremely high. Every proposal has been rigorously assessed by the EOCA team, along with our panel of scientific advisers, so we would be happy to fund any of them”.
The project with the most votes in each category at the end of the two weeks will be awarded the funding that they have requested from EOCA. To vote, please visit EOCA’s website to vote in each category. Voting closes at 12.00 noon BST / 13.00 CEST on Monday 14th April.
Designed to harness the incredible power of the outdoor recreation industry and to raise money to fund grassroots nature positive action, the European Outdoor Conservation Association is supported by membership and other fundraising activities. Membership is open to anyone involved in the European outdoor recreation sector.
From January 2015, a select group of ‘Sustaining Members’ pledged their support to EOCA by committing to fund the sustainable growth of the organisation with an extra €10,000 per year over and above their annual membership fee. This money is being used to finance the Association’s core running costs, supporting its sustainable growth, and has enabled a move to 2 funding rounds per year. The current EOCA Sustaining Members are: Cumulus, Pertex, KEEN Footwear, The North Face, Nikwax, Stanley, Osprey and the European Outdoor Group (EOG), which is also the Founder Member of the association.