E C O V A S T

European Council for the Village and Small Town is a pioneering civil society organization in the field of rural development, founded in 1984 with the aim of advocating for development and preserving the identity of rural communities and small towns across Europe.

About us

ECOVAST is:

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a campaigning organisation, advocating for the well-being of the people and the heritage of rural Europe;

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a networking organisation, which seeks to support, and to encourage cooperation between its members as they pursue their activities in rural areas.

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We offer services at international and national level either as an international non-profit organisation or through our national sections

HOW WE WORK

Campaigning

As a campaigning organisation, ECOVAST seeks to express the concerns of its members throughout Europe to policy-makers, official bodies and others; and to make their views felt in the debates which affect the future of rural Europe.

International working groups

According to recognised needs, we have experience of setting specific International Working Groups. These groups exchange experience, work on a specific topics and encourage informal contact between their members.

Technical missions

At the request of our members, or of governments and other organisations in different countries, we have been able to send experts from within the ECOVAST network to a number of countries to advise on aspects of rural development, rural tourism, heritage protection and other issues.

Activities & events

ECOVAST has had a number of active international working groups that focused on topics important for development of rural communities and developed relevant documents.
We have taken part in major practical projects, such as the Heritage Trails project and the ASSET project (Action to Strengthen Small European Towns).
ECOVAST organises Annual General Assemblies, with accompanying events (symposia, conferences, study tours etc). These are held each time in a different country. The meetings were stopped during the 2020 pandemic, but we hope to continue the tradition in the future.

National sections

ECOVAST’s membership has grown rapidly, and has reached at certain points over 500 members in 20 European countries. Our members include individuals, academic bodies, government and non-government organisations, from local to international level. ECOVAST can thus act as bridge between decision-makers and those who are active at local level, between experts and practitioners. It operates mainly as a network, to assist mutual support among its membership in pursuit of their activity in rural areas. It has national sections in several European countries. These provide a focus for exchange and activity in each country, to benefit its rural communities and rural heritage.

short info about ecovast in other languages

Other languages

ECOVAST website no longer provides full info in other languages besides English, however a short information about ECOVAST is provided in French and German. Some documents are translated into other languages, they can be found under Publications as PDF documents.

Über ECOVAST auf Deutsch

Die ECOVAST-Website bietet keine umfassenden Informationen mehr in anderen Sprachen als Englisch. Hier finden Sie Kurzinformationen zu ECOVAST in deutscher Sprache. Einige Dokumente sind in andere Sprachen übersetzt, sie können unter Veröffentlichungen als PDF-Dokumente eingesehen werden.

Au sujet d’ECOVAST en Français

Le site Web ECOVAST ne fournit plus d’informations complètes dans d’autres langues que l’anglais. Une brève information sur ECOVAST en français est fournie ici. Certains documents sont traduits dans d’autres langues, ils peuvent être consultés sous Publications sous forme de documents PDF.

Publications

The “Strategy for Rural Europe”, produced by ECOVAST Working Group in 1994, was one of the first documents related to rural development in Europe. It was addressed to all policy-makers and practitioners at European, national, regional and local level and has been widely circulated to decision-makers and interested groups throughout Europe.

In more than four decades of its work ECOVAST has continously produced various policy statements, guides to good practices, handbooks and other publications. Our national sections publish local documents relevant in their local context and provide translations of our policy documents in local languages.