The World Parks Congress (WPC) is the most important forum in the world for formulating protected areas policies and procedures. The first World Parks Congress was held in 1962 in Seattle, Washington and is celebrated every 10 years. The fourth World Parks Congress held in Caracas, Venezuela in 1992 was the largest ever held; more than 2500 professionals attended, 700 of which were from Venezuela. Compared to the WPC held in Bali, Indonesia 10 years earlier in 1982, where only 350 people attended, this is even more impressive. This year, the 5th World Parks Congress will be held in Durban, South Africa. The theme is \”Benefits Beyond Boundaries.\” According to the website WPC (go to WPC website), the challenge before the 2003 Congress will be to show how protected areas are relevant to the broader economic, social and environmental agenda for humankind in the 21st Century.
As part of the pre-Congress activities, a preparatory workshop for Venezuelan\’s participation in the WPC was held. Representatives from various groups attended, including representatives from the National Institute of Parks (Inparques), the Venezuelan Committee of the IUCN, the Polar Foundation and many non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Bioparques, ParksWatch\’s partner in Venezuela, was one of the NGOs in attendance. During the workshop, participants received general information about the WPC organization and its function, information on opportunities for participation in WPC and the workshop organized each report to be presented by the various institutions and showed the advances documented in the Country Report that IUCN-Venezuela is preparig for the WPC.
Parkswatch-Venezuela presented a report titled, \”Parkswatch, an alternative model for monitoring the National Parks of Venezuela,\” and detailed the methodology which is bsed on rapid field evaluations to diagnose the conservation state of the parks throughout the country. This same presentation will be sent to the WPC for the poster session. Additionally, during the Country Report presentation, the presenters asked for ParksWatch-Venezuela\’s information on the 12 national parks that have been evaluated so that they could include it in the Country Report. ParksWath-Venezuela\’s opinion and methodology were consulted when designing the indicators of management success for the protected areas. To this effect, the next workshop\’s theme was set and will also include more of PW-Venezuela\’s evaluations of the national park system.
By attending and participating in workshops and reports such as these, PW-Venezuela continues to strengthen its relations with national and international organizations involved in setting the conservation agenda in Venezuela. Additionally, PW-Venezuela is disseminating information about its methodology and results in order to become an expert organization on Venezuelan National Parks.
(Top photo: Final publication from the IV World Parks Congress held in Caracas in 1992.)
ParksWatch: April 2003