Management Effectiveness Evaluations

Ensuring Management Effectiveness Evaluations of Protected Areas

In recent years there has been a growing concern amongst protected area professionals and the public that many protected areas, including some natural World Heritage sites, are failing to achieve their objectives and, in some cases, are actually losing the values for which they were established. As a result, improving the effectiveness of protected area management has become a priority throughout the conservation community. One important step in this process is the carrying out of an assessment of current status and management of the protected area, to understand better what is and what is not working, and to plan any necessary changes as efficiently as possible. Assessment of management effectiveness has emerged as a key tool for protected area managers and is increasingly being required by governments and international bodies. For example, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work for Protected Areas (agreed in February 2004) calls on all State Parties to implement management effectiveness assessments for at least 30% of their protected areas by 2010 (Hockings et al. 2008).

Very few Management Effectiveness Evaluations (MEE) have been conducted in Tanzania. The PAMS Foundation is playing an active role in promoting and implementing MEE in Tanzania. This includes the training of conservation agency staff to continue the practice of conducting periodic MEE themselves. It will also be implementing 'Enhancing our Heritage', a MEE Tool designed specifically for World Heritage sites, at Ngorongoro Conservation Area during 2010 and 2011.

Training

The PAMS Foundation offers a course through the Southern African Wildlife College titled ‘Ensuring Effective Management in Conservation Areas’ which covers topics such as Management Effectiveness Evaluations (MEE) and Management Systems tools. The Ensuring Effective Management course is aimed primarily at rangers in managerial positions and/or those involved in strategic planning. For example wardens, area managers, rangers involved in the designing, planning and/or protection of conservation areas; and rangers involved in monitoring and evaluating conservation areas or conservation programmes. Rangers who successfully complete this course will understand the need for ensuring that conservation areas and natural resources are managed effectively. They will understand the role of MEE tools, the difference between the varying types of MEE tools, the limitations of MEE tools in ensuring management effectiveness and the essential principles of a comprehensive management system that can help ensure management effectiveness. They will also gain a basic understanding of how to design and implement a Protected Area Management System (PAMS). The training course empowers the individual to relay their knowledge to others and to be equipped to make sound and responsible choices towards the effective management of natural resources.

It is planned that this course will be tailored and presented in other parts of the world so that more rangers around the globe can be appropriately skilled in ensuring management effectiveness of their protected areas.