News from the CEPA e-mail list

Management planning and Integrated Management - and a vacancy for a Communications Officer (18/01/06)

Good afternoon everyone:

Three items in today’s message: two publications for your bookshelves, one that will help managers of protected areas produce a good management plan, and another that takes readers through the concepts and approaches for integrated management of Mediterranean wetlands; and an interesting vacancy in IUCN for a Communication Officer in West Africa.

1. Management planning for protected areas : a guide for practitioners and their bosses has been developed for Eurosite to provide the managers of Protected Areas with the tools necessary to produce a goodmanagement plan that will meet the full range of uses they require.

The authors note that this new guidance, while it has some similarities to Eurosite’s Management Planning Toolkit published in 1997, represents a different approach to management planning arising from the need to involve stakeholders and to take into account the advent of the European Habitats Directive.

The Guidance does not lay down a set of rules or a blueprint for a management plan, but rather recommends important principles for what should be done and how to do it, so that the rationale for the management of Protected Areas is clear. And it is not intended either as a recipe book which users should follow: the authors intend a "pick-and-mix" approach by users in which appropriate sections may be adapted to the particular circumstances of the Protected Area for which a plan is being prepared.

The authors usefully provide summary boxes and technical diagrams throughout the document and these can be copied and used freely by managers to help with the production of their management plans (but with full acknowledgements of the authors).

This publication can be downloaded as a PDF file (1.3MB) from the Eurosite Web site here http://www.eurosite-nature.org/IMG/pdf/mp_guidance_jul04.pdf. This is also available in hard copy from the English Nature Enquiry Service, Northminster House, Peterborough, PE1 1UA, United Kingdom (email: enquiries@english-nature.org.uk)

2. Integrated Wetland Management of Mediterranean Wetlands : Concepts, lessons and approaches for integrating conservation into land use management is number 13 in the excellent series of publications produced by MedWet. It capitalises on the lessons learned in the region, in particular through the work of the Station biologique de la Tour du Valat, the Institut de recherches et d'applications des méthodes de développement (IRAM) and the MedWetcoast project.

Divided into three main sections, it looks at the broad issue of conservation in section one focusing on the specific characteristics of Mediterranean wetlands from social, economic and ecological perspectives and identifying the major issues that make the case for protecting and improving the management of these areas.

Section two looks at the evolution of the integrated management approach from two key concepts, conservation and sustainable development, defining a concept of integrated management that accords a central role to the societies involved.

The third section looks at operational aspects emphasising the key questions which actors involved will have to ask themselves in their own particular contexts – questions such as: When should integrated management be promoted? Which key actors to involve? What approach to adopt to promote negotiation between interest groups? What organizations and structures to lead and promote such a process? Constraints, risks and opportunities?

All of this is presented in an easy-to read style and, as always with MedWet publications, is well illustrated with photos and useful explanatory diagrams. There are also boxed case studies from the region illustrating some of the major points throughout the text.

For the moment this publication is only available in hard copy but at the modest price of 10 Euros (US$ 12) excluding postage. It will probably be available for download in PDF format at a later date. To order a hard copy you should go here http://www.tourduvalat.org/news_31.htm;jsessionid=ff6191afd64c4c7bb172dd8143ef9285. You can also get to the appropriate page by going to http://www.tourduvalat.org/, click on Informations générale > Documentation > A Commander.

3. IUCN has a vacancy for a Communication Officer in its West Africa Office in Burkina Faso. Deadline for applications is February 21st and full details are available here http://www.iucn.org/brao/uicn_brao/vacancies/Communications_officerBRAO.pdf .

All for now, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat

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Sandra Hails, CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0176; Fax: +41 22 999 0169
E-mail: hails@ramsar.org
Web Site: http://ramsar.org
CEPA mini-Web site: http://ramsar.org/outreach_index.htm

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