Exchange programmes - IUCN

Implementation of an Exchange Programme for Protected Areas in East Asia
Stage 3. Review and identify potential partners
There are several methods of finding potential partners. Most commonly, partnerships
arise in an ad hoc manner through existing relationships with administrators, managers
or staff from other protected areas. These relationships may be fostered through contact
at conferences, workshops, staff meetings or email or “hard copy” correspondence, and
may range from local to international contacts. It is often easiest to begin the search for
possible partners by approaching these friends or acquaintances working in other parks.
However, if existing contacts are not interested, or are unsuitable as partners, then the
search must be broadened.
If the individual has access to the Internet, identifying potential partners throughout
the world should not be a problem. Many nations now have information on their
protected area-related ministries, park systems and individual parks on the Internet. By
using a search engine, these can be relatively easily found. Indeed, many examples of
protected area legislation, policies, research findings and descriptions of management
techniques can now be found on the Internet. Such information is exceedingly valuable
in increasing internal capacity within protected areas around the world. However, access
to the Internet is not yet common in all countries and parks in East Asia.
Other sources to help identify potential partners include:
� A Directory of Protected Area Personnel and Organisations in East Asia has been
prepared by IUCN as sister volume to this publication (Hayes and Egli, 2001). It
will include the contact names, addresses and areas of expertise of WCPA East
Asia members, a list and description of international and national organisations
and NGOs in each country of the region, and the names of all protected areas in
East Asia.
� Global lists of protected areas include the UN List of Protected Areas 1997
(IUCN, 1998), which can be ordered from the World Conservation Bookstore web
site (http://www.iucn.org/bookstore/index.html) or may be available at protected
area head office locations or through WCPA East Asia members.
� The lists of World Heritage sites and Biosphere Reserves held by UNESCO, and
Ramsar sites held by the Ramsar Secretariat are especially relevant as potential
partners for East Asia protected areas which are part of those international
networks or expect to be so in future. All these sites are also to be found in the UN
List.
� Sometimes opportunities to create a partnership can be found through a chance
article in a newspaper, a radio or television broadcast, which helps identify other
protected areas with similar biophysical characteristics or shared issues.
In searching for and selecting a partner, it is often useful to summarise the characteristics
of one’s own protected area. Points to emphasise are:
� landscape or ecosystem type (e.g. tropical forest or mountain park);
� protected area categorisation (e.g. using IUCN protected area management categories
I–VI, see Box 3.1 below);
� comparable problems or management issues (e.g. endangered species protection,
community-park interactions or tourism management);
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