The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

16. Building leadership and professionalism
Box 1. The International Centre for Protected Landscapes (cont.)
Environmental management: designing environmental strategies and action plans; appraising
and evaluating policy; environmental and social impact assessment; strategic environmental
assessment; running Integrated Conservation and Development Projects;
Management planning: from areas to sites; the preparation and presentation of plans;
Business planning for protected area managers: financial planning; management systems and
structures;
Management skills: organisation; team, time and change management; assessing per form ance;
Generic skills training: interpersonal skills; communication, presentation and negotiation;
Consensus-building and conflict resolution; building partnerships with communities;
Collaborative management and participatory approaches;
Education, information and interpretation: the principles and purposes; planning interpretation
programmes;
Sustainable tourism: principles and application;
Marketing for recreation and tourism: analysing visitor needs; strategic marketing;
Visitor management: planning for recreation and tourism; evaluation of impacts; integrating
the needs of conservation and recreation; and
Training for trainers; planning and managing training programmes; skills and techniques;
evaluation.
Alternative approaches to professional development
A variety of approaches to continuing professional development are currently being used in
addition to in-service training, short courses and formal education. The role of activities such as
international exchanges, seminars and workshops should not be underestimated – all have a
major part to play in this process. As noted by Jessica Brown and Brent Mitchell of the
QLF/Atlantic Center for the Environment,
…protected areas managers world-wide face new and increasingly complex challenges,
[and thus] there is a growing need to learn from the experience of counterparts working
in other regions of the world. Focused exchanges and partnerships, built on the principle
of mutual learning, can make an important contribution to fostering innovative conser -
vation strategies, building effective partnerships and coalitions, and strengthening the
capacity of participating institutions (Brown and Mitchell, 2002).
Box 2 illustrates an initiative by QLF/Atlantic Center for the Environment that has been highly
successful in promoting landscape stewardship, using international exchange in parti cular as a
means of professional development and organizational capacity-building.
While historically the emphasis of protected area management in the USA has been on
IUCN Category II national parks, including areas of ‘wilderness,’ with which its national park
system is most closely associated, an increasing trend demonstrated by new designations is
towards conserving privately owned or public/private partnership landscapes for their natural
and cultural heritage value. These are lived-in landscapes, and their conservation requires a
protected landscape or “stewardship” approach to management.
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