Exchange programmes - IUCN

Implementation of an Exchange Programme for Protected Areas in East Asia
2.5 National Park Service Sister Park relationships
Introduction
Many US national parks have sister parks in other countries. Examples of links include:
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore with the Kampinoski National Park in Poland;
Badlands National Park with the Vashlovani Nature Reserve in Georgia; Mount Rainier
with a protected area in Japan; the Voyageurs National Park, Cape Cod National
Seashore, and Yukon-Charles Rivers Nature Preserve with three protected areas in
Russia; the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area with a protected area in
Slovakia; Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument with a protected area in Mexico; Big
Bend National Park with Mexico; and the Everglades National Park with a protected
area in the Bahamas.
In 1998, a US National Park Service (NPS) Technical Advisory Team was asked by
the President of Georgia to assist their protected area managers. Subsequently, several
NPS managers went on a scoping visit to Georgia. The primary purpose of the visit was
to provide consultative services to the Government of Georgia on ways to improve the
Protected Areas Department. This was needed as recent legislation had broadened their
responsibilities and created a new system of national parks and protected area designations.
Revenue generation through ecotourism was also of interest. An MOU was
signed between the NPS and the Georgian Protected Areas Department during a US visit
in 1999. Sister park relationships have been established between four US parks
(including Badlands) and comparable sites in Georgia ranging from the Black Sea to the
Caucasus Mountains. Recently, Georgia applied for a multi-year grant from the World
Bank and Global Environment Facility (GEF) to implement the recommendations that
have evolved from US visits, so as to plan their new protected areas system, develop
employee capacity, and improve facilities in existingparks and reserves.
The sister parks of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Kampinoski National Park,
Cuyahoga Valley and protected areas in Slovakia, and the Badlands and Vashlovani are
all fairly active. Other sister park relationships tend to be more ceremonial.
The remainder of this section focuses on perhaps the most productive of these
partnerships, that between Indiana Dunes and Kampinoski in Poland.
How the programme works
Establishing partners
Discussions concerninga co-operative relationship between the NPS and the Board of
Polish National Parks (KZNP) began in 1988 during a visit by a delegation of NPS staff
to Poland. Nothingsubstantive developed out of this meetinguntil 1997, when another
small delegation from NPS visited Poland, this time at the request of the US Ambassador
to Poland.
Mainly as a result of this second meeting, NPS and KZNP agreed to develop a
working relationship and began to develop an agreement. One year later, an MOU for a
sister park relationship was signed between officials from Indiana Dunes and
Kampinoski.
Although they are not identical, the two parks have many biological characteristics in
common. The primary plant communities and soils of each are analogous. Although they
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