Training the 4th generation of protected area specialists

Braşov, 07 April 2016

After three successful editions, ProPark – Foundation for Protected Areas continues training future protected area specialists in Romania. The trainings are divided in two parts: an online course followed by a face-to-face training. The 4th training is taking place in Saschiz between 4th and 23rd April 2016, and the first part of the face-to-face training was hold last week.

The 20 participants coming from more than 15 protected areas, who had previously gone through the online stage on the learning platform www.proparktraining.ro, are about to also complete the face to face courses and to be awarded the graduation certificates for the Protected Area Specialist occupation. The Certitification, COR code 213306, is issued by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly and the Ministry of National Education. The main objective, according to Paul Hac, coordinator of this session and director of the Nature Park Lunca Muresului, is to “establish the skills of the trainees on developing a management plan”.

Participants come with different background experience. Monia, one of the participants, who is already working in the field stated “I had already learned by doing, but I needed a theoretical frame”, adding that “this programme gives a general understanding of how protected areas work”. Other participants, like Agnes, who is also one of the winners of the Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarship 2015, have other reasons to attend “first, it helps me to have a good basis on protected area management and to know better different ways of working. All information I collect here will help me for the ATS, to understand how they deal with situations in other countries. Secondly, I came here to get in contact with Romanian PA managers and develop my personal network. It is also quite challenging to work with people with a lot of experience.”

The vocational training programme is organised within the 3 years project “Increasing education opportunities on sustainable development for Protected Area managers in Romania”,   funded by DBU – Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, in partnership with the EUROPARC Federation.  Although the project is finished in July 2016, the online learning platform keep being used by Propark.

This professional training programme provides participants with the opportunity to acquire specific skills for the efficient administration of natural protected areas, thus contributing to their promotion as model areas for conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources

said Georgiana Andrei, project manager, adding “we believe the success of this project will consist exactly of the contribution of these specialists to changing the public’s perception of protected areas“.

 

For further information about the project please contact:

Georgiana Andrei, Project Manager, Telephone: 0723172933, E-mail: georgiana.andrei@propark.ro.

Antonia Cucu, Project Assistant, Telephone: 0747766239, E-mail: antonia.cucu@propark.ro.