The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

16. Building leadership and professionalism
Conservation management
training in the Pacific Island
States. The management of
Protected Landscapes today
requires an array of management
and specialist skills.
Shaun Russell, ICPL
in any sector), that when economies are stretched and budget constraints are introduced, staff
training provision is often the first activity to be curtailed.
The Durban Accord, an output of IUCN’s World Parks Congress 2003, again highlighted
concerns about the “lack of access to technology, knowledge, lessons learned and best practice
models for effective and adaptive management” experienced by many protected area practi -
tioners around the world and urged a greater commitment to “building the capacity of protected
area managers.”
Training needs for protected landscape managers
Protected area professionals, including protected landscape managers, have traditionally come
from the natural science disciplines – they are likely to be, for example, foresters, ecologists,
biologists or zoologists. They are specialists in their own fields and clearly have a great deal to
offer in terms of technical expertise. However, as described above, the management of
protected landscapes today requires a much broader perspective, coupled with a range of new
management skills, which were not formerly considered the realm of conservationists. An
understanding of the conceptual framework of the protected landscapes approach and a wide
range of both specialist and generic skills are important for managers to be effective. Specialist
skills include, for example: policy development, management planning; biodiversity conser -
vation; development control; heritage conservation; sustainable economic/social develop ment;
agricultural liaison; visitor/tourism management; information, education and inter pretation;
landscape assessment; information management; and financial management. The specialist
skills embrace both natural and social sciences and, importantly, their practical and technical
application within the philosophical framework of the protected landscape approach. They are
both scientific and technical; they concern economics, planning, multiple land-use, social
processes, education and information dissemination, and participatory plan ning and manage -
ment.
Generic skills – necessary for the implementation of the specialist activities identified above
– include, for example: partnership-building; participatory approaches; collaborative leader -
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