Story | 03 Jun, 2019

Translation of IUCN publications on protected areas into Asian languages

Under the auspices of Asia Protected Areas Partnership (APAP), and with the generous financial support of the Korea National Park Service (KNPS), a number of IUCN publications on protected areas are currently being translated into selected Asian languages.

Photo: IUCN

As a first step, the IUCN WCPA Protected Area Technical Report, A Global Register of Competences for Protected Area Practitioners, has been selected for translation from English into Nepali and Myanmar language. This report defines the skills, knowledge and personal qualities required by protected area managers and staff. The translated publication will help build capacities of protected area management authorities in Nepal and Myanmar. The Nepali version will be available shortly, while the Myanmar language version will be published later this year.

Given the demand in the region for IUCN publications and the growing interest in sustainable tourism, the IUCN WCPA Best Practice Guidelines on Tourism and Visitor Management in Protected Areas are currently being translated into Mongolian. The guidelines introduce ten principles of tourism and visitor management and provide case studies to demonstrate the ways in which sustainable tourism is being implemented in different countries. The translated publication should be available by the end of 2019. It is hoped that the guidelines can also be translated into other Asian languages in due course.

Asia Protected Areas Partnership (APAP) has been designed as a key platform to help governments and other stakeholders collaborate for more effective management of protected areas in the region. The partnership was initiated in 2013 at the first-ever Asia Parks Congress held in Japan, and formally launched the following year at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Australia. It is chaired by IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and co-chaired by an APAP member organisation on a rotational basis, beginning with the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea, is the current co-chair.