Three-hour workshop
Introduction:
Trainings can be useful to (re)educate the participants about the ways in which the cultural and spiritual significance of nature can be used to make their work on management and governance of protected and conserved areas more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable, especially for the next generation.
Why training and for whom?
Trainings are specific to a particular audience or situation on the ground. Different stakeholders e.g. protected area managers, Indigenous peoples, local communities, religious groups and NGO’s etc. have different needs for different trainings.
Trainings can be developed in accordance with the IUCN protected area categories and governance types. Within the context of the broader land and sea scape trainings can also be developed for OECMs, areas conserved by Other Effective Conservation Measures.
Trainings can also aim at making cultural and spiritual significance of nature part of specific areas of conservation such as protected area management, eco tourism, graduate and undergraduate university courses, management effectiveness assessment, park interpretation, stakeholder liaison etc.
What trainings already exist?
CSVPA and its members have developed different approaches to develop presentations and trainings at international workshops and conferences. Several members have also developed and implemented trainings as part of conservation programmes on the ground in protected areas and other conservation areas. These training modules are presented below and have been used in different continents, with somewhat different purposes, and have proved to be a good tool to disseminate the fundamental concepts related to the cultural and spiritual values of protected areas.
Please have a look at www.csvapa.org to learn more about trainings and how you can contribute to this work.
The Workshop
Initial suggestion: to help focusing and increase the attention it is suggested to listen traditional / archaic music (related to the area if possible) for 5 minutes, making a short comment on the origin of the music and the connection to nature it has.
Training Course Schedule
| TIME | ACTIVITY | GOAL |
| 10 mins | Introduction | Short introduction of the participants and presenter & facilitator/s; goals of the workshop. |
| 60 mins | Presentation |
|
| 80 mins | A guided workshop developed in parallel in several small groups (no more than 5 people, ideally). | Each group has may discuss either a case study, or a part of the same case study, e.g. using the role play method. |
| 20 mins | Reporting back to the general group | Share the insights that each group has gathered with the remaining people, using keywords and short sentences to convey the main ideas. |
| 10 mins | Conclusion | Stress the main messages and provide sources and references for those that want to know more about the topic. |
Learning outcomes of the course
Participants will have a basic understanding of the concepts of cultural and spiritual values and related ideas and their relevance to conservation in general and to protected area management in particular
Participants will learn the position of IUCN, WCPA (plus other relevant institutions of their country, if applicable) including the main conclusions and recommendations, getting and idea of the significance they have by means of discussing a few selected case studies.
Notes for facilitators
- Participants should register, providing the name, email address, and the name of the organisation where they are working
- Materials: room including a computer, projector, suitable screen, tables and chairs for all participants, flip charts and markers.
- The suggested format works well for 20-30 people; allowing the creation of 4-6 small groups.
- It is useful to distribute the power-point and other relevant materials to all participants afterwards.