Wilf Fenten has been closely involved with European designated areas since 1996. Until May 2015 he was managing director of EUROPARC Consulting, the EUROPARC Federation’s consultancy. For almost 12 years he was a board member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. There he chaired of the Authority’s Public Rights of Way/Access Committee for 8 years and was champion for the Park’s cultural heritage.

Since leaving EUROPARC Consulting he has been working as independent environmental advisor on various projects in the UK and for several years in the Western Balkans for designated areas in Albania and all the countries of former Yugoslavia. He has recently returned from a scoping visit to Southern France where he gained first-hand experience in the joint PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur) region about how local businesses and areas of high landscape and culture value can work together for their mutual benefit and that of local people.

Over the years he has worked with well over 125 protected areas across Europe (including national parks, nature parks, biosphere reserves and regional parks) on topics such as “Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism”, “Protected Areas as Testbeds for Sustainable Development”, a “Learning from Europe” project about strengthening the identity and public commitment towards an AONB and other facets of sustainable tourism.