The project ‘Capacity Building Plans for Efficient Protected Area Management in Eastern Europe’ was launched in October 2012. The project is implemented by Association ProPARK from Romania commissioned by the Bundesamt fur Naturschutz (BfN) from Germany, with the aim to support and coordinate the development of national and regional plans for capacity building for CBP Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) implementation in Eastern Europe.
Although capacity development is critical for supporting effective protected area management, there are very few coordinated and comprehensive capacity building programmes in Europe. In Eastern Europe there are predominantly project based, one-off training courses which they lack any systematic and sustained approach.
To contribute to the project goal achievement, the following project specific objectives were set:
• carry out a training and capacity needs assessment in all the target countries, with a focus on the countries where model capacity programmes will be developed through the project;
• elaborate plans for model approaches and identify the possible implementing agencies;
• identify and promote centres of good practice for capacity building in the PA management field;
• develop the capacities of these centers to implement these programmes – by training the trainers, developing an online platform, a network of specialists, etc;
• identify funding possibilities for the capacity building programmes.
The projects consist of two stages. The first stage includes a training needs assessment conducted in the 23 target countries, while the second stage includes development of national/regional capacity building plans and curricula proposals. The National Capacity Building Plan for Protected Area Staff (CB Plan) will be prepared in a participatory manner in collaboration with stakeholders, while the most relevant stakeholders will be gathered in a Working Group who will work on preparation, promotion and further adoption of the Plan into practice.
Association Sunce coordinates the elaboration of a National Capacity Building Plan for Protected Area Staff in Croatia, and provides both logistical and technical support to the work of working groups, collects relevant information and prepares materials relevant for capacity building plan and coordinates a communication with all those involved in the process at the national level.