Two Day Training Course

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.

The training course objectives

• Introduce participants to a cultural and spiritual values approach to conservation, focusing on the values and significance of nature
• Build understanding of the approach and its relevance to conservation
• Stimulate thinking and discussion on the balance between material and non-material values in nature and conservation.
• Provide key information and some skills in a cultural and spiritual values approach to protected areas.

Training course content

• Increasing recognition of values in conservation since 2003;
• The changing place of values in conservation policy, practice and law;
• The relationships between culture, values, governance and nature and how these affect conservation initiatives;
• Ways of identifying core values, institutions and practices linking people to nature; practical activities for integrating local values into protected areas;
• Representing and communicating protected area values;
• Cultural values approaches related to key institutions and organisations.

Learning outcomes of the training course

• Participants will understand and be able to define the concepts of cultural and spiritual values and related ideas and describe their relevance to conservation in general and to protected areas in particular.
• Participants will be aware of issues relating to culture, spirituality and conservation and begin to develop an understanding of communities’ interest in the non-material values of landscapes and nature
• Participants will be able to recognise opportunities for and benefits of applying a cultural and spiritual values approach to protected area planning and management.
• Participants will hopefully get inspired to include cultural and spiritual values in their work, making use of the materials, contacts they had been provided.