Conservation Management Support Network
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The issue I would like to ask your attention for is the
establishment of a Conservation Management Support Network,
a joint undertaking of the Dutch Karkonosze Foundation
(established in 1990 as a facilitating organisation for co-
operation with Central European institutes, GOs and NGOs),
the Board for Polish National Parks and all national park
administrations in Poland (Poland has, at present, 21
national parks (276 000 hectares) of which 6 are designated
Biosphere Reserves in the UNESCO MaB programme).
The motivation for establishing CMSN is the recognised need to
substantially strengthen the (organisational) capacity of
national parks in Poland if they are to effectively fulfil their
role as corner stones of the Polish strategy to conserve the
still substantial landscape and biological diversity in Poland,
take action to prevent the irreversible loss of currently
threatened values and, where possible, prepare for the
restoration of lost biodiversity. And, to create circumstances
for the future of sensitive areas to become truly sustainable.
Establishing CMSN is to provide a solid structure and model for
effective communication / co-ordination / co-operation among
peers and relevant stakeholders. And, to create the right
infrastructure to build a practical National Park Information
System (including AIS, GIS, DSS, MIS) for the Polish national
park system which may, then, be easily adopted by similar
organisations (particularly in Central Europe).
Element of an ongoing process of landscape and biological
diversity protection efforts, developing the concepts for CMSN /
NPIS has been integrated in a number of closely related and co-
ordinated projects in Poland and countries to the South and East
of Poland. CMSN in particular, represents an innovative, joint
effort of Intergovernmental (IGO), governmental (GO), non
governmental (NGO) organisations, institutes and corporations to
participate in long term Biodiversity Protection efforts.
In practical terms, CMSN is part of the work programme of the
National Parks Component for which the Polish government has
borrowed two million US dollars from the World Bank under a
Polish Forestry Development Project financed by the World Bank
and the European Investment Bank. The additional funding required
for the realisation of the full NP Component will be generated by
applying a number of equally innovative strategies, involving an
even wider variety of sources than CMSN.
However, as this message is primarily about CMSN, I will stick to
that issue now. The initiators of CMSN are three organisations
mentioned earlier, whereby the Karkonosze Foundation will
initiate international, the Board for Polish National Parks
national (i.e. government, national foundations / funds, and the
national park administrations local (i.e. regional and local
governments, institutes, local NGOs) input to CSMN.
A practical reference frame work for the development of CMSN (and
the components of the model NPIS) will be provided by means of
generating fully integrated (short term) management plans for all
national parks in Poland. To be developed and maintained in a
cyclic, dynamic organisational process, and supported by all the
participants to CMSN. These plans will reflect the rights and
responsibilities of ALL stakeholders, users, and external
elements directly affecting and influencing the management of the
national park in its complex environment.
The support / co-operation process is, of course, where,
hopefully, you, or your institute / organisation, will join
forces in the realisation of this difficult but worthwhile cause
for the future of biodiversity protection.
A few, proposed (your comments on this are very welcome), guiding
principles for CMSN, and NPIS components, are:
1. The entire process will be based on existing entities. I.e. no
new facilities will be established, though participants may be
provided with infrastructural means to effectively participate.
2. Financial contributions by the participants to the development
and maintenance of CMSN / NPIS components (e.g. applications,
data / information sets) will, initially, be voluntary.
A code of conduct on this issue for the future will be jointly
developed by all ACTIVE participants when CMSN has become fully
operational by the end of 1996.
3. Already existing relevant data, information, etc. will be
available from, and to, CMSN participants free of charge.
4. Reasonable compensation for time and expenses will be paid to
any participant contributing to new to be developed items for
CMSN and the NPIS components. Arrangements will always be made
by means of specific Terms of Reference and contracts between
CMSN and the participant / contributor.
Any reader having had experience in the management of conserving
landscape and biological diversity, will be well aware of the
complexity of the described effort, and I sincerely hope many of
you will find the concept interesting and challenging enough to
become one of many active participants in its realisation.
The entire (development) project will continue until the year
2000. As we hope to involve a number of students / graduates in
interdisciplinary workgroups to realise specific tasks, do not
hesitate to contact me to see if this effort could be of help to
you as well as to the development process.
Best regards,
Henry Baumgartl
For more information, please send me an EM with a short
description of your (or your institute / organisation) background
/ field of interest, or contact me at:
Karkonosze Foundation
P.O.Box 2298
NL - 1620 EG Hoorn
The Netherlands
Tel & Fax +31 229 241992
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