The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

16. Building leadership and professionalism
role of multi-sectoral partnerships in enhancing management – particularly those between
protected area agencies and NGOs – is now recognised and well documented. Indeed, in many
instances, NGOs now play a fundamental role in management capacity – particularly so in
protected landscapes, where the nature and compass of management necessarily demands the
sharing of responsibility through partnership agreements.
This example describes an initiative by the EUROPARC Federation to encourage and
facilitate partnerships between protected areas as a means of facilitating professional de -
velopment.
The role of partnership brokers, such as that played by the EUROPARC Federation in this
instance, is to facilitate partnerships that are purposeful, pro-active and mutually beneficial to
all partners. Only then can partnerships be of value as frameworks for mutual learning,
exchanging information and expertise, broadening experience and perspectives, addressing
common issues, and resolving common problems.
The Durban Action Plan
Recognising the importance of professional development in building the capacity of protected
area management (particularly in relation to the demands of the ‘new paradigm’) and also the
paucity of training opportunities to achieve this, the V th World Parks Congress proposed a
number of actions to improve on the current situation. According to the Durban Action Plan
(IUCN, 2003) these include:
to encourage partnerships between training institutions;
to establish regional networks of trainers and training institutions;
to create a pool of learning sites as best practice models for training;
to improve opportunities for non-conventional learning (for example, distance education,
learning networks and practical on-the-job-training);
to ensure that each protected area has recruitment, training and continuing professional
development plans and programmes for managers and staff; and
to develop the Protected Areas Learning Network (PALnet), an interactive, web-based
knowledge management tool, through which stakeholders at all levels can acquire and
share best practice.
The actions (to be led by the IUCN WCPA Capacity Development Task Force) are chal -
lenging and inevitably subject to many external influences, not least of which is funding.
However, while little progress was made between 1993 and 2003 as alluded to earlier in this
paper, it is to be hoped that the commitment to professional development is now greater and that
more will be achieved in the coming decade.
Conclusions
Professional development for protected landscape managers is about building leadership
qualities and the skills required to create management systems that are effective in conserving
the natural and cultural heritage of the landscape within viable economic frameworks and
231