November 6, 2026 EOCA marks 20 years of collective action for nature with new film
The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) has released a short film marking its 20th anniversary. It looks back on two decades of collective action for nature and ahead to the outdoor industry’s role in protecting it.
Since its founding in 2006, EOCA has given outdoor businesses a way to pool funding for nature. In that time, the association has raised €6 million for conservation, supporting 221 projects in 67 countries.
Released on Oct. 26, the anniversary film brings together voices from the outdoor and conservation community. It explores how businesses can support grassroots conservation and strengthen the industry’s voice for nature, as well as involve more people in protecting the places they value.
“Nature is the bedrock of all our economic success,” says Dan Yates, executive director at EOCA.
“We work collaboratively across the whole of the outdoor industry, so brands can pool funding, co-fund projects together.”
The people behind the projects
Much of the film focuses on the relationships behind that work. Contributors discuss the importance of community participation and the connections between people and habitats, as well as the responsibility of an industry whose businesses depend on nature.
“Effective protection of habitats is actually about the whole social element that sits around them, the culture that sits around them, the people that use them, the landscape that they sit in,” explains Robbie Blackhall-Miles, a conservationist, ecologist and economist.
“It all has to be functioning together.”
A collective voice for nature
Beyond funding practical conservation, the film highlights EOCA’s advocacy role. According to EOCA, membership gives businesses a collective voice for nature and creates opportunities to reach their customers and communities with the importance of protecting it.
Yates links that role directly to the association’s project work:
“Conservation work and rewilding without political action is only tackling half the problem. Conservation has to go hand in hand with protection.”
The anniversary is also an invitation to look ahead. With more than 100 brand members already part of EOCA’s community, the film calls on more outdoor businesses to invest in grassroots conservation and stand up for nature.
Alongside Yates and Blackhall-Miles, the film features Sarah-Jane Brown, digital community activator at Trash Free Trails, and Tom Carrick, who works in access and conservation at the British Mountaineering Council. It was filmed and edited by Duncan Nicholls, with project footage credited to 12 conservation organizations, from the BMC Access and Conservation Trust to Oceans Without Borders.
The film is available to watch on the EOCA website.
About EOCA
The European Outdoor Conservation Association (EOCA) is a not-for-profit association founded by the European outdoor industry in 2006. It provides a way for companies to invest in conservation and restoration projects around the world, and advocates for nature-supporting legislation at EU and UK level.
Photos: EOCA
