A Partnership Approach to Deliver on Protected Area Targets

There was a big event in Nagoya on Thursday, 21. October, named "A Partnership Approach to Deliver on Protected Area Targets". Deni Porej, conservation director of WWF Mediterranean is in Nagoya, so he is sharing with us his experiences...Let's find out how it was:

When: October 21st, 13:15 - 14:15

Where: Century Hall, Bldg.1, 1st floor

Part 1. Introductory Words –

Mr. James Leape, Director General, WWF-International

6 min. Film “Making it happen – delivering on CBD commitments”

Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary, CBD

Part 2. Discussion Panel – with the participation of:

Ms. Jelena Dučić, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Republic of Serbia

Mr. Ioseb Kartsivadze, Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources, Georgia

Ms. Ana Kobašlić, Ministry of Culture, Croatia

Mr. Alagie Manjang, Department of Parks and Wildlife Management, The Gambia

Mr. Ayuush Namkhai, Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism, Mongolia

Part 3 Wrap up and Next Steps

I finally figured out today why Rolf wanted me to host this event – perhaps I am the only person that could actually pronounce all of the speakers’ names (:o)

The event was great, we had a full house and the energy was high, very positive and upbeat. We framed it as highlighting of the achievements that countries in these 5 ecoregions have made at national levels while participating in an ecoregional project. Speakers were talking about the added value of this kind of regional approach – ability to generate high-level political commitments (Carpathian Convention, Big Win in the case of D. Arc), increased regional collaboration (Carpathian Networks of PAs and Protected Areas Clearing House Mechanism , visits of Slovenians and Croats to Serbia and Montengro in the case of D. Arc), good platform from donors to support joint activities (e.g., IUCN/WWF Transboundary PA project in D. Arc), encouragement for countries to do work that otherwise they would not (e.g., RAPPAMs), new approaches (e.g., Carpathian Protected Areas Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool, Business panning in PAs in D. Arc) and increased coordination of other organizations to support the joint objectives (e.g., DAI).

Many thanks to Jelena and Ana from Serbian and Croat delegations who did a great job of presenting the achievements in both ecoregions. I sent thank you letters to both delegations, really great gals.

Even with the very short time we had to brief him, Jim Leape did a truly marvelous job. Three minutes to go through the slides, he read quickly through the talking points, Ok boys let’s go and he spoke like he was actually running the project himself. Quite impressive, there is an obvious difference in the quality of education I was offered at my Ohio State University and he at Harvard….We ended the event by him calling for the international community to join us in replicating this approach in 20 ecoregions by 2020 which is a VERY ambitious goal that we will try to mobilize our network and partners on, here at COP and in the months to follow…stay tuned on that.

Deni