Download The Regional Workshop for Coastal West

The Regional Workshop for Coastal West-African countries on CBD/UNDP elearning course on Protected Areas is being held from 10 – 12 May 2016. The
workshop is seen as a training of trainers. The main objectives of the workshop
are:

To present and promote the conservation.org global e-course on
protected areas;

Build capacity and confidence in training and encouraging key
stakeholders in taking part in the e-course for the 8 weeks online course
to be initiated on June 1st, 2016;

Enhance understanding and capacity among participants to manage
biodiversity protection within the NBSAP process of the UNCBD

Research institutes/universities participating in the workshop are
strongly encouraged to include these modules into their curricula.
The Workshop has been organised by the Regional Partnership for Coastal and
Marine Conservation in West-Africa (PRCM) through the CBD project entitled
‘Enabling PRCM countries to meet their obligations for the Convention on
Biological Diversity’, with support from the Institute of Francophonie and
Sustainable Development (IFDD) and United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) through the NBSAP Forum.
The Workshop is being held in the beautiful coastal city of Saly, Senegal.
Participants comprise protected areas managers, policy-makers, experts and
academicians from seven West-African countries, namely Mauritania, Senegal,
The Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Participants
include representatives from Abidjan Convention; RAMPAO; the University of
Nouakchott
(Mauritania); Institute
Oceanography, University
of
Freetown
of
Marine
(Sierra
Leone);
Biology
and
and
Master
GIDEL, University of Dakar (Senegal).
Day I and Day II has been exciting with very engaging participants discussing
issues related to global perspective on world’s protected areas; spatial and
sectoral integration of protected areas. Specific cases of trans-boundary
Protected Areas were discussed with participants from each bordering country.
Participants at length discussed the challenges and factors of success of transboundary protected areas. The workshop managed to balance group
discussions, plenaries and expert presentations. The methodology adopted for
each module was as follows:

Expert presentation introducing the Module available online,

Working group discussions addressing questions and practicing exercises
as provided in the online training module

Presenting group discussion summary at the Plenary
Observations presented below are the result of the reporting at the plenary.
Updates from Day I
Global Trends in Protected Areas and Biodiversity: Participants observed that
although there is an increase in the world’s protected areas, there is a relative
decrease in resources due to lack of good governance and implementation,
especially at the local level. Lack of community participation, conflict between
development and conservation goals of countries, challenges related to
landscape based management were also recognized as some of the major
trends in the world’s protected areas.
Increased human population, exploitative agricultural practices, business as
usual approach and lack of proper communication channels were some of the
major drivers of biodiversity loss that were recognized by the participants.
Agriculture, Infrastructure, Energy, Tourism, Extractive industry, and high
production forest exploitation were identified as major sectors driving
biodiversity loss.
Trans-boundary Protected Areas: Participants underscored the importance of
creating trans-boundary protected areas for effective and efficient protected
area management. Trans-boundary protected area challenges and opportunities
were
discussed
amongst
bordering
countries
during
real
case-based
discussions. Conflicting polices and regulations, lack of involvement of corridor
communities, conflicting status of forest areas across borders, border disputes,
conflicting government priorities i.e. development vs. conservation were
highlighted as some of the major issues.
Collaboration, coordination, capacity building, and communication among
bordering countries; compliance with international biodiversity conservation
goals; harmonizing regional legislation; engaging with corridor communities
were recognized as the primary steps to achieve a coherent approach towards
successful trans-boundary protected areas establishment and management.
Participants also brainstormed over potential trans-boundary protected areas
that may be created with neighboring countries. They also discussed the steps
necessary to be undertaken in their countries for successfully creating these
protected areas.
Updates from Day II
Use of appropriate technology: Day II progressed into discussions related to the
use of appropriate technology as a fundamental part of protected area
management. Participants shared their knowledge and understanding on
current and new technologies and methodologies like GIS, use of drones, Global
Positioning Systems (GPS), remote sensing, spatial planning tools, tools for
ecological survey etc. Participants also discussed the use of new technologies
like drones, GPS utilization in terms of security and legality. Participants also
highlighted challenges like lack of financial resources and lack of capacity to
use appropriate technology for efficient biodiversity and protected area
management and monitoring.
Resource Mobilization: One of the modules focused is the important question
resource mobilization for protected area management. The BIOFIN workbook
was introduced as an innovative methodology enabling countries to measure
their current biodiversity expenditures, assess their financial needs in the
medium term and identify the most suitable finance solutions to bridge their
national biodiversity finance gaps. Participants observed that the budgets
allocated for PA management is insufficient, making it difficult to implement
strategic activities. Mauritania and Guinea Bissau have created trust funds to fill
the financial gaps in terms of resource mobilization for protected area
management
and
biodiversity
conservation.
Various
income-generating
activities were highlighted as additional financial resources for protected area
management and biodiversity conservation. Strengthening public-private
partnership was recommended as another important strategy to ensure
sustainable finance.
Protected Areas and Climate Change: The day was completed with the module
on protected areas and climate change, where functional ecosystem within
protected areas offer a strong capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Participants recognized that increase in temperatures has resulted in change in
weather and rain patterns affecting migratory and breeding cycles, and habitat
loss. Ecosystem restoration, reforestation and afforestation, use of new
agricultural techniques using water saving measures, sand-dune fixations,
setting up of wind breaks, flood and sediment breaks, creating fire belts
involving communities were recognized as some of the ways to buffer climate
change through Protected Areas management plans and practices.
Updates from the last day.
The third day of the workshop the participant reflected, discussed and
presented and practice the module focusing on governance and monitoring of
protected areas.
The importance of good and effective governance for protect areas was
discussed and examples of best practices were provided from first-hand
experience from participants. For example communities members living at a
proximity of a protected area are taking part in monitoring of the ecosystem,
are involved in managing structures and in the decision making process. Such
co-management processes have shown in various places to improved effective
implementation of the plans. In addition, the practice ethical values in
management practices have shown to be essential for improving the
implementation of ambitious plans for the protection of ecosystems and their
biodiversity.
The workshop participants had the opportunity to continue to practice the use
of NBSAP.net website for networking and accessing knowledge resources
among PA practitioners. They also continued to access the e-modules on
conservation.org in order to become familiar with the navigation and the
content of the upcoming online course. Before closing the workshop
participants had the opportunity to present the capacity building and
dissemination plan for their respective countries. Action planned include the
use of the 8 weeks e-learning course to be launched on June 1st, 2016 to
provide training for protected areas managers and relevant practitioner, but
also university with the relevant expertise, the relevant civil society and
community representatives and environmental media.
This workshop is proving to be an excellent segway into the NBSAP Forum's
upcoming interactive eight-week E-learning course on ‘Protected Areas
Management and Design’ starting from 1st June, 2016.
For registering for the eight-week e-learning course, contact Heena Ahmed,
Policy Specialist, NBSAP Forum ([email protected]). Check the Forum
website for more on the e-learning UNDP certified course and updates on the
Workshop!