Background In the densely populated landscapes of Western and Central Europe, appropriate habitats for grouse species are becoming increasingly rare. Many of these area are at the same intensively used for recreational purposes, such as skiing, and other outdoor sports. This LIFE Co-op project "Grouse and tourism in natura 2000 areas" was launched in 2002 by the State Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg, in co-operation with project partners from Finland, Scotland and Germany. Objectives The aim of the project was to develop guidelines for tourim and recreation in Natura 2000 areas, based on the ecological conservation requirements of grouse species. The recommendations developed by these guidelines should be be wideliy applicable throughout the natural range of these species within the EU and constitute a basis for the development of site-specific management plans. Target groups of the guidelines are different initiatives, associations, research bodies and site management authorities concerned with grouse, nature conservation, landscape management and tourism. Results The project produced a 32-pages document with general guidelines for the management of Natura 2000 areas holding grouse populations. The guidelines cover the following topics that are relevant for grouse conservation: tourism, nature protection, species protection, hunting, forestry and agriculture. The guidelines are available in English, French and German; they can be downloaded as a pdf file from this website. Interestingly, the project has been facing some difficulties because the main threats and priorities for conservation actions diverge between different bio-geographical regions of Europe. The guidelines have taken account of this constraint by describing, for each of the bio-geographical regions covered, the main issues and constraints. This is probably the first time ever that a view on grouse conservation has been taken from an EU-wide perspective.