First published on 10/19/2014, and last updated on 02/19/2018
By: Mina Esteghamat, Regional Coordinator for West and Central Asia (CENESTA)
Under the government action for the implementation of national management plans of protected areas, Cenesta was invited to be involved and facilitate a planned regional workshop.
These workshops were planned following to the training workshop sponsored by Cenesta and the Department of Environment on participatory methods in the management of protected areas, on March 5th at the DOE (Information on it is available in our previous Newsletter). These workshops aimed at reviewing the national governance and management arrangements of protected areas through participatory approaches and —in this sense– also evaluating the country’s commitments to international environmental conventions.
The main viewpoints of these workshops were:
- Planning the implementation of prepared national management plans;
- Reviewing and including participatory approaches in the national management plans of protected areas;
- Reviewing and including international commitments in the national management plans of protected areas;
- Evaluating the country’s commitments to international environmental conventions;
- Selecting four pilot protected areas in four different geographical regions.
Cenesta has participated as a facilitator and lecturer in four regional workshops held at the Department of Environment in Anzali, Semnan, Borujerd, and Shiraz during the months of May and June 2014. In each of these workshops, it invited representatives of local IPs and LCs and other civil societies to sit together with the official experts during the decision making sessions. Cenesta also presented concepts, experiences, and international commitments regarding participatory patterns. It facilitated two working groups in each of these workshops on the following subjects: “The role of different stakeholders, specifically non-governmental ones, and the existing challenges in participatory management of protected areas” and “Participatory selection of pilot protected areas for implementation of Protected Areas Management Plan.”
Participation and facilitation of the regional workshops across the country were important for Cenesta to inform members of the DOE in regional offices on the importance of participating IPs and LCs in Protected Areas Management Plans. These workshops facilitated discussions between the relevant stakeholders and strengthened the relationship and cooperation between the governmental officials, civil societies and IPs and LCs representatives for further community governance and rehabilitation plans in the area.
The meetings were very positive in clarifying the role and status of the IPs, LCs and civil societies in management plans. The results indicate that, despite the trimming of relevant collaborative activities in previous years, most participants in the workshop voted for the involvement of civil societies, local communities and indigenous people in governance and management plans.
