Launch of new training programme for Protected Area professionals in Romania

The DBU funded project Increasing education opportunities on sustainable development for Protected Area managers in Romania, in which EUROPARC has partnered with ProPark Foundation (RO), is entering its next exciting phase.

Today, 27th April, the newly developed training programme for Protected Area professionals, a mix of online and face-to-face sessions, sees its first participants. It seems this offer is striking a chord, with more than 240 applications that came in for only 30 places and scholarships. Twelve diverse topics are covered in the programme, reaching from legal and financial issues relevant for Protected Area management, to the management of sustainable agriculture or wilderness.

The participants start with a set of online training modules. After successfully completing those, they will be invited to two face-to-face training sessions in September and October, each five days. Participants passing the test at the end of the training, will be granted graduation certificates issued by the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly and the Ministry of National Education, for the Protected Areas Specialist profession.

A second round of the training for new participants will again be offered in 2016.

”Through this vocational training programme participants will acquire knowledge and skills for the efficient administration of natural protected areas, for promoting them as model areas for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources as well as for increasing the level of acceptance of Protected Areas among communities and the public”, says Georgiana Andrei, project manager with ProPark.

Read more about the project, its aims and activities here.