Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources
Center for Protected Area Management and Training (CPAMT)
Current Research and Outreach Projects
Colorado State University International Short Course on Protected Area Management
Project Directors: Jim Barborak, Jim Wurz, Craig MacFarland
The Spanish-language International Short Course on Protected Area Management is an intensive one-month training course designed for mid-level professional and technical personnel who are conservation practitioners directly involved in protected area planning and management. The course is based at the CSU campus, but the majority of the course is spent in the field visiting a wide range of different types of protected areas in the Rocky Mountain region of the western USA. This field work provides exposure to the full spectrum of protected area management categories, including strictly protected parks and wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, and multiple use reserves, as well as a range of governance options, including local, state and federal government agencies, NGOs, private landowners, and concessionaires. The field work allows participants to experience and assess a wide variety of programs and facilities for research, tourism, environmental education, and interpretation. Individual and group exercises equip participants with the practical concepts, methods, and techniques required to improve management of the protected areas where they work.
Principal project objectives:
1. Provide participants with a broad introduction to key concepts, principles, methods, and techniques of management of protected areas.
2. Offer opportunities for hands-on skill development in the application of these concepts, principles, and methods to challenges they will face in their careers in protected area management.
3. Bolster the professional competencies of participants with a strong emphasis on teamwork and leadership development abilities.
4. Provide opportunities for peer-based learning among participants and allow participants to share their knowledge and experience with instructors, protected area managers, and other conservationists in the U.S.
5. Develop a plan of action for application of the skills and competencies developed in the course for implementation by participants on return to their jobs.
The International Short Course on Protected Area Management began in 1990 and has been given annually for over 20 years, with financial support from the UNESCO World Heritage Center, the International Programs Office of the USDA-Forest Service, USAID, the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, O Boticario Foundation, Semeia Foundation, and many others. Over 435 people have attended the course since 1990. The course is anticipated to continue indefinitely.
CSU-WWF Training of Conservation Trainers Program
Project Directors: Jim Barborak, Craig MacFarland, Alan Moore
This project has been implemented by the CPAMT in partnership with the Russell Train Education for Nature Program of World Wildlife Fund-US, with financial sponsorship from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
A growing body of literature indicates that a lack of adequate highly trained and skilled staff and support personnel is a major management effectiveness weakness in protected area systems in the developing world. However, investments in staff training for conservation agencies in developing nations are limited in scope and impact in many nations. The Training of Conservation Trainers (ToT) program seeks to create a cadre of skilled and motivated conservation trainers who work for government conservation agencies, universities and NGOs who are directly responsible for training protected area personnel and individuals from cooperating organizations such as community groups and local governments. The Training of Trainers program consists of an intensive, experiential learning based eleven day course given at or near a protected area. The participants have the opportunity, at the end of the course, to practice their new training skills by preparing a training presentation which is then given to local rangers or community groups. Thus far, six courses have been successfully completed for over 120 participants, two each in Peru and Ecuador and one each in Colombia and Bolivia, in collaboration with national conservation agencies.
The principal project objective is to provide participants with the confidence, knowledge, skills and professional competency to be able to do the following:
1. Organize, fundraise for and implement effective training events for protected area personnel and individuals involved in protected area management from community based organizations and NGOs.
2. Fulfill the role of an effective instructor for themes with which they are familiar.
3. Manage the on-going organizational and logistical arrangements of a training course.
4. Design effective presentations.
5. Transfer their knowledge to other potential trainers.
CSU and WWF just completed the first phase of the project and plan to continue this effort in the four pilot countries and expand it to other Latin American nations.
Institutional Options for Protected Area Management: Public-Private Partnerships for Tourism Management in Protected Areas
Project Director: Jim Barborak
To expand the use of public-private partnerships for management of tourism and recreation in protected areas, CPAMT has partnered with WWF-Brasil, the state government of Sao Paolo, the US National Park Service, the Tourism and Protected Areas Working Group of the World Commission on Protected Areas, and many local partners to promote development and dissemination of best practices on this topic through a series of international workshops and development of an online learning portal. Workshops on the subject have been held in California and Brazil and additional workshops are planned over the next year in Mozambique and South Korea. Participants discuss ways to generate revenue streams, develop supportive legal and policy environments at the national level, and enhance facilities and programs to increase public use of and support for parks and reserves. They also reviewed efforts of conservation agencies to develop partnerships with other governmental, academic, NGO, and for-profit entities, and empower and benefit local communities in an era of tightly constrained budgets and limited manpower for government conservation agencies.
Field Training for Conservation Professionals
Project Directors: Jim Barborak, George Wallace, Jim Wurz, Craig MacFarland, Larry Lechner
The Center provides short term in-country training on a variety of topics related to protected areas and adjacent communities. These training projects respond to specific requests from government and NGO partners throughout the world. Examples of recent or planned training courses include field ranger training (Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru), general protected area management training for mid to upper level managers (Guyana, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil), and technical assistance with training curriculum development (Belize, Vietnam). CSU also partners with CATIE, a regional university based in Costa Rica, and with Conservation International, the UNESCO World Heritage Center and other donors, to give annual international one month short course on protected area management in Costa Rica, and to organize a two-week mobile seminar on the same topic, for protected area managers from throughout Latin America.
Public Use Planning for Protected Areas
Project Directors: Ryan Finchum, Jim Barborak, Jim Wurz, George Wallace, Craig MacFarland
Balancing the demand for public use of natural areas with adequate resource protection is a concern worldwide especially as PA staff are being pressured to create new revenue streams to augment often diminishing government support, while the growth in ecotourism around the world is creating both more demand for outdoor recreation in parks and reserves, and a need for careful planning of new programs and infrastructure. The Center has a long tradition of colaborating with protected area managers and local communities to identify public use options that strike a balance between conservation objectives and visitation in areas ranging from pristine wilderness to rural landscapes. The Center has worked iteratively for many years to clarify, refine, and adapt processes and techniques in conditions-based planning, collaborative planning, and public involvement to the context of participatory public use planning in Latin American protected areas. We have provided several international short courses and workshops in these processes and techniques to protected area planners, directors, and professional-technical personnel, in order to assist them in prioritizing issues, defining desired outcomes in a precise, measurable way, monitoring results, and adapting management to respond to actual conditions. We also train managers in the use of experience-based management frameworks as a tool for visitation planning and management. These courses often use an in-country protected area as a model and case study, and have been given or are planned for Brazil, Belize, Mexico, Ecuador, and El Salvador.
Course topics include:
· Role of the carrying capacity concept in public use planning
· Meaningful stakeholder participation and transparency in decision making
· Identifying and prioritizing issues and opportunities
· Using public use zoning to define desired conditions
· Developing indicators of quality and standards (limits of change)
· Using management scenarios to weigh alternative futures
· Techniques for minimizing negative impacts and responding to change
· Plan implementation
· Developing a monitoring program
In addition to organizing short courses and seminars on these topics, CPAMT is also currently working with the International Programs office of the USDA Forest Service and the Mexican Protected Area authority (CONANP) to complete a manual on public use planning for protected areas in Mexico. CPAMT will also develop, with USDA Forest Service support, a more general public use planning manual for Latin America.
International Sister Cities Relationship
Project Directors: George Wallace, Jim Wurz, Ryan Finchum
Continuing an initiative begun with Mexican partners in 2007, the Center is facilitating the establishment of a Sister Cities agreement between the cities of Fort Collins, Colorado, and San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. We are working with the city councils of both cities, city staff from the Fort Collins Natural Resources Department and Natural Areas Program, municipal planning staff from San Cristobal, representatives of the tourism industry of both cities, and civil society leaders to forge a lasting relationship based on the sharing of experiences and technical expertise in municipal and land use planning, protection of working agricultural landscapes, and establishment and management of municipal natural areas.
Financial and in kind support for the project has come from a variety of sources, including USDA Forest Service, the City of Fort Collins, the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, The Nature Conservancy, ProNatura-Sur, and Na Balom.
Leadership Development for Protected Area Professionals
Project Director: Jim Barborak
CPAMT is leading CSU’s participation in a six-university partnership with the US National Park Service and National Parks Conservation Association to develop leadership skills of NPS employees. In the first cohort, 14 NPS employees from across the country are taking a six-course, three-semester blended (both online and presence-based) program leading to a certificate in Public Lands and Cultural Heritage Leadership. Faculty from the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and CPAMT will be teaching courses in Protected Area Law and Policy and Integrated Public Lands Resource Management during spring semester, 2012. The second cohort will begin classes in fall term, 2012, and participation will be widened to include other federal, state, local, and private sector protected area management organization representatives.
Leadership for Public Lands and Cultural Heritage is a unique certificate program designed to prepare current and future leaders with responsibility for the United States’ cultural and natural resources. The certificate program consists of six graduate-level courses resulting in 18 credits. Each course will be taught by one of the consortium universities.
Courses are taught primarily online, with each course including a residential component designed to bring theory into practice in a park-based setting.
Protected Area Trails and Infrastructure Training and Planning
Project directors: Jim Barborak, George Wallace, Larry Lechner, Jim Wurz
The importance of infrastructure is an often overlooked but central issue in all conservation areas. Infrastructure is a tool for visitor management, resource protection, scientific research, and overall PA administration. It often consumes considerable financial resources for operation and management yet receives inadequate consideration during planning. The size, location, and design of PA infrastructure often do not adequately reflect site characteristics or available funding for staffing and maintenance, and therefore frequently fail to meet conservation objectives. The Center is a leader in PA infrastructure planning, implementation, and evaluation in theory and practice, having colaborated on design, site selection, evaluation, and management of infrastructure at all scales from campgrounds and trails to visitor centers and administrative facilities.
One example is the Mesoamerican Trails Initiative, sponsored by CSU and many national and international partners, including the USDA Forest Service, Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, Fundación Ecológica de El Salvador (SalvaNATURA), Pronatura-Sur, and CONANP. The long term goal of this project is to build a regional trail network linking the protected areas of Central America and Mexico. Trails, as one of the most readily identifiable infrastructure elements, are often developed with little attention to planning and maintenance, and therefore exhibit many of the same sustainability issues mentioned earlier. Studies have shown that most trail problems result from poor planning and design rather than from over-use or capacity related issues. CPAMT’s training program emphasizes trail development and management as a process rather than a series of independent management actions. The training methodology uses experiential learning techniques that integrate theory, hands-on field practices, and presentations by participants of the skills and knowledge they have acquired in the theory and practice sessions.
Thematic areas of the training program include:
· Trail management overview
· Positive and negative impacts of trail development
· Site analysis
· Financial analysis
· Risk analysis
· Trail design, mapping, and layout
· Construction techniques
· Monitoring and maintenance
· Trail interpretation
· Sources of funds for trails and infrastructure projects
With USDA Forest Service support, CPAMT is finalizing a trails training manual in order to share more widely the lessons learned from years of trail training efforts.