The Mont Avic Natural Park, in order to be able to evaluate and improve its environmental performance, while monitoring the management of its institutional activities and compliance with applicable environmental regulations, has decided to implement, since 2003, an Environmental Management System compliant with the requirements of the ISO 14001 Standard and the EMAS Regulation. In particular, the EMAS Regulation is the eco-management and audit scheme promoted by the European Community (EC Reg. No. 1221/2009) to which any organization that intends to evaluate and improve its environmental performance can join by providing the public with validated environmental information and the maximum environmental recognition at European level which can aspire to, through a voluntary process, companies and organizations, both public and private. The Mont Avic Natural Park is the first EMAS registered protected area in Europe. The ISO14001 standard and the EMAS Regulation provide for a series of phases to be implemented and checked periodically:

• establish and adopt an Environmental Policy that defines the objectives and principles of action of the organization with respect to the environment; this document therefore constitutes the reference framework for setting and reviewing environmental improvement objectives;
• carry out an Initial Environmental Analysis in which the context, the needs of the interested parties, the environmental obligations, the environmental impacts and performance connected to the direct and indirect activities of the organization are examined;
• elaborate the Environmental Program which contains a description of the measures (responsibilities and means) adopted to achieve the environmental objectives and targets and related deadlines;
• adopt an Environmental Management System, including the organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources to develop, implement, implement, review and maintain Environmental Policy;
• carry out an Environmental Audit and a Management Review, that is to evaluate the effectiveness of the management system and environmental performance in relation to the Policy, the improvement objectives, the environmental programs of the organization and the regulations in force;
• draw up theEnvironmental Declaration(EMAS only), addressed to the public, which includes the Environmental Policy, a brief description of the Environmental Management System, a description of the organization, of the significant environmental aspects, of the environmental objectives and targets and in general of the environmental performance of the organization.

The Mont Avic Natural Park, in order to allow the widest possible dissemination of the contents of the 2018-2020 Environmental Declaration, has also created a video summary, effective for addressing the issue of environmental sustainability and EMAS principles with any type of public ( e.g. schools, etc.). Over time, the Environmental Management System has become an operational tool for the management and daily organization of the Park’s activities, so much so that it has been incorporated into the Territorial Management Plan approved in 2018. This approach represents the first example at national level of concrete integration of EMAS with an institutional planning and regulation tool. In November 2005, as part of the work of the European Commission EMAS, the Park was awarded the EMAS Award 2005 – Italy , as an Italian experience of excellence in the application of the EMAS Regulation. In 2015, the Mont Avic Natural Park won the 2015 Emas Italia Award (promoted by the Ecolabel Ecoaudit Committee, an inter-ministerial body responsible for issuing EMAS registrations in Italy, and by the ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), public administration category , both as the best environmental declaration for the particular format, printed on EU Ecolabel paper, and for the widespread method adopted in the dissemination of the same. In 2018, the Park underwent an audit for the renewal of both environmental awards and the simultaneous alignment of the Environmental Management System with the requirements of the new ISO 14001: 2015 and of Regulation (EU) 1505/2017 which amends Annexes I, II and III of Reg. CE 1221/2009, thus moving towards the sixth three-year period of adhesion and implementation (2018-2021). The prestigious goals achieved in recent years and the awards obtained testify to the levels of excellence in the management, conservation and enhancement of the naturalistic, territorial and cultural aspects of the Park and the commitment to the constant improvement of its performance.