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OUTPUTS
OF THE CONGRESS
Outputs
on the PALNet
Protected Areas Learning Network
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What:
The Protected Areas Learning Network (PALNet) will be an interactive,
web-based knowledge management tool for protected area managers
and stakeholders. The first major stage of PALNet development
will take place at the WPC. The Congress will provide a forum
to demonstrate the programme to the world's key protected
area professionals, refine the prototype, and obtain the endorsement
of the protected areas community.
Where: PALNet will be demonstrated at the PALNet Centre
in the Durban
Exhibition Centre (DEC).
How to get involved: All delegates are invited to review
PALNet materials and to provide comments.
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A
Proposal
Background
PALNet: The Tool
PALNet: The Plan
Investment
The PALNet / ICT Centre at the WPC
PALNet Schedule
The Protected
Areas Learning Network (PALNet) will be an interactive,
web-based knowledge management tool for protected area managers
and stakeholders. It will enable PA managers, policy makers, and
stakeholders to adapt their policies, strategies, and practices
to anticipate the threats to protected areas and, at the same time,
capture the new opportunities generated by these changes.
PALNet will encourage
PA managers to actively exchange experience on specific areas of
common interest, shift their scale of vision and activities to whole
ecosystems and bioregions, and adapt their plans and investments
to a context of accelerating change.
PALNet will promote North/South
and South/South exchange of experience and foster on-site testing
of innovative options for adaptation. A regional network of field
learning sites and regional nodes will provide the project with
a solid field-oriented base, and ensure “bottom-up” input
into the knowledge-building process. PALNet will be officially launched
at the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa
in September 2003. In addition to serving PA stakeholders around
the world, PALNet will support the Convention
on Biological Diversity in its PA program of work.
The first major stage
of PALNet development will take place at the World Parks Congress
in Durban South Africa (September 2003). The Congress will be used
to demonstrate the program to the world’s key PA professionals,
refine the prototype, and achieve the endorsement of the protected
areas community.
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Protected
Area Learning Network
"building
the capacity to manage critical
protected areas in the face of global change"
A Proposal
The protected areas of
the world are at risk. These sites which harbor the world's most
valuable diversity of life and the sources of ecosystem services
for people face a growing set of global changes that threaten the
existing capacity to protect and maintain these resources. PALNet
is designed specifically to enable PA managers, policy makers, and
stakeholders to adapt their policies, strategies, and practices
to anticipate these threats and at the same time, capture the new
opportunities generated by these changes.
The
aim of PALNet is to enable protected area managers to generate
new knowledge and raise their professional capacity by sharing and
exchanging field-based experience and rapidly developing science.
To accomplish this aim, a transformation is required that encourages
PA managers to actively exchange experience on specific areas of
common interest, shift their scale of vision and activities to whole
ecosystems and bioregions, and adapt their plans and investments
to a context of accelerating change.
PALNet is designed to
promote North/South and South/South exchange of experience and foster
on-site testing of innovative options for adaptation. A regional
network of field learning sites and regional nodes will provide
the project with a solid field-oriented base, and ensure "bottom-up"
input into the knowledge-building process. PALNet will be officially
launched at the World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa in
September 2003. In addition to serving PA stakeholders around the
world, PALNet will support the Convention on Biological Diversity
in its PA program of work.
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Background
At the 1992 3rd World
Parks Congress the attendees agreed to expand the global protected
area system to 10 % of the earth's terrestrial surface. This goal
has since been realized. As we approach the 2003 5thWorld Parks
Congress, the global conservation community is confronted with the
realization that, while past achievements are considerable, much
of this system is now at substantial risk. This risk is a product
of immense and pervasive global change embodied in biophysical,
socio-economic and institutional forms. The community must now mobilize
the full knowledge base to meet our biodiversity conservation goals.
Following focused international
debate and consultation, the
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and the
World Resources Institute, along with other partners, conceived
the Protected Areas Learning Network (PALNet). This
network is intended to meet the knowledge and information needs
of protected area managers struggling to deal with global change.
Maps, management plans, lists of experts, and scientific literature
will also be cross-referenced within the program, including linkage
to the CBD
Clearing House Mechanism, and other relevant networks.
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PALNet: The Tool
PALNet will be an interactive,
web-based knowledge management tool for protected area managers
and stakeholders. Those engaged in the network will contribute to
and benefit from lessons learned regarding adaptation of protected
area policies, strategies and practices to global change. These
case studies will be distilled from existing literature and a set
of field learning sites. The initial learning sites will also be
the focus of workshops to train stakeholders in the use of the mechanism
and will be expanded over time as a global community is encouraged
to participate. PALNet will promote peer-based learning interactions
across regions and ecosystem types with a particular emphasis on
South - South exchange. In addition it will be designed and managed
to foster the use of adaptive management strategies which will secure
biodiversity in situ, where it otherwise would be lost to the inexorable
forces of change.
The PALNet will be compatible
with and supportive of other conservation networks,
as well as the Convention on Biological Diversity's Clearing
House Mechanism (CHM). However, the audience and purpose of this
mechanism is unique. This tool seeks to actively engage protected
area managers globally and promote knowledge exchange to foster
experimentation with adaptive management techniques. This activity
is different than, yet supportive of, other ongoing efforts to protect
biodiversity, especially those of CBD
States Party regarding Article 8 on In Situ Conservation.
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PALNet: The Plan
The development of PALNet
will follow this proposed timeline:
The first stage
of development will take place from June 2003 through the
World Parks Congress in Durban South Africa (September 2003). The
Congress will be used to demonstrate the program to 2000+ of the
world's senior PA professionals, refine the prototype, and achieve
the endorsement of the protected areas community.
The second stage
of development will take place from October 2003 to April
2004 using two critical CBD meetings and a set of regional workshops
to gather information on the functionality of the website and discuss
its further development. Issues relating to the full implementation
of the network will be discussed and recommendations for future
development of the mechanism will be sought from CBD delegates and
workshop participants. During this stage options for the development
of regional nodes will be considered, and if supported, they will
begin implementation.
The third and final
stage will be from May 2004 through to the IUCN World Conservation
Congress (WCC) in Bangkok, Thailand (September 2004). Regional nodes
will be in development. The goal is to have a fully operational
PALNet by this time.
From the close of the WCC, the PALNet will operate for three years
and then undergo an evaluation process to assess its effectiveness.
Based upon the outcome of this process, consortium partners will
identify and advance methods for system and network improvement.
During this three year period, a long-term home for PALNet administration
will be identified and the process of decentralizing selected network
functions will commenced.
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Investment
The partners have already
contributed cash and in-kind resources to the project now valued
at US$ 4.5 million. GEF
will provide US$1 million for work by developing countries. Yet
needed are funds to cover overall management and development of
the project, and support for its long-term legacy.
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The PALNet / ICT Centre at the World Parks Congress
With support from a GEF
grant, we are pleased to inform you that the PALNet/ ICT
Training Centre will be operating during the Parks Congress.
The Center will be set up in the Exhibition Area of the Congress
and provide facilities of 15 desktop computers with internet access,
in a space of 45m2. Digital projector, printer and wireless
access for a small number of laptops are available for training
and demonstration purposes.
The PALNet /ICT Centre
is set up as a special training facility for the Congress
Streams and Cross Cutting Themes to highlight the important
role of knowledge management tools, and information and communications
technologies for parks management.
The Centre will be used
to present WCPA’s and IUCN’s leading initiatives in knowledge
and information management with a special focus on the Protected
Areas Learning Network, World
Database on Protected Areas, the WCPA
Portal and other initiatives facilitated by the WCPA
Information Management Task Force.
A special timeslot will
be set up to provide a “software exchange”
to provide all participants of the Congress to showcase their ICT
tools and experiences.
All desktop computers
at PALnet Center will have Microsoft
Windows XP and Office
XP installed. If additional software needs to be installed or
configured for presentation purposes please contact PALNet Center
organizers in advance.
PALNet
schedule is available here
The PALNet Center and
Programme will be managed by Silvio
Olivieri and Vladimir
Bazan
Please submit your
requests / proposals to PALNet Centre organizers.
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Protected
Area Learning Network - PALNet - PDF Document - 83KB
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