Exchange programmes - IUCN

Implementation of an Exchange Programme for Protected Areas in East Asia
Box 1.2 Asian and Latin American training seminars
Three seminars organised in Vietnam, Hunan Province (China), and Indonesia
addressed the needs that were identified and expressed by the partner organisations.
All the seminars received counterpart funding from national government authorities
and other donors. The European participants were park managers and experts
drawn from partner protected areas of the EUROPARC network. All the European
partners were highly regarded in Asian/Latin American countries for their professional
knowledge and for being practitioners (i.e. experts working on the same
level for the same global objectives).
The Changsha workshop on biodiversity conservation for Hunan Province, China
was crucial in the elaboration of the Hunan Biodiversity Action Plan, and was part
of the partnership co-operation between Finland and Hunan. The workshop raised
the awareness of different staff levels of the Hunan Forestry Department and was
the first official encounter between the research/academic institutions and the
implementing Forestry Department. (see also Box2.1). (Brüggemann, 1999).
determined by such considerations as the cost of the seminar, the technology required,
the number of trainers involved, and the number of training sessions proposed. 1
Partnering/Twinning/"Sistering"
A partnership occurs when two or more protected areas enter into an agreement with
each other and become, in effect, partners over a long term. This process is also referred
to as twinning or “sistering”. Partnerships, whether formal or informal, allow a working
relationship to develop over time. Successful partnership programmes will encompass a
broad range of activities and involve many types of people including, in some cases, key
members from local communities.
A number of partnerships have been developed under the auspices of international
programmes (such as the EC-funded EUROPARC programme). Typically, an agreement
– normally a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – is drawn up to specify the
approach taken, the type of activities that will take place, and the anticipated results of
the exchange. Some concerns have been raised that formal partnerships can involve too
much bureaucracy; this should be taken into consideration in the development of such
programmes.
An example of a successful partnership is the twinning of Ojców National Park in
Poland and the Peak District National Park in England, set up under the auspices of the
EUROPARC programme. Initially, Ojców set up an environmental education programme
with the Peak District, but it later developed into a formal partnership, involving
both park authorities and local communities. Other successful partnerships include the
MOU between the Indonesian Directorate General Forest Protection and Nature
1 The WCPA Global Task Force on Training for Protected Areas web site contains additional
information on the role of training in capacity building and exchange programmes, and lists the
contact details for a number of academic and regional training centres throughout the world (see
http://www.trentu.ca/org/tfpa/).
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