More than 20 participants gathered in Ulcinj, Montenegro to attend a training workshop 'Initiating Transboundary Conservation', held from 30 October to 1 November 2018. The training course was facilitated by IUCN Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia's (ECARO) Director, Boris Erg, IUCN WCPA Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group's Vice Chair, Maja Vasilijević, and IUCN Environmental Law Centre's (ELC) Legal Officer, Lydia Slobodian.

The training covered key topics that are relevant for the initial stages of transboundary conservation process, i.e., the detailed elaboration of the  ‘Diagnose’ and the ‘Design’ phases of the transboundary conservation process, as outlined in IUCN WCPA’s Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Transboundary Conservation: A systematic and integrated approach’ (Vasilijević et al., 2015). These Guidelines, along with other publications on transboundary conservation and the IUCN ELC Protected Area Law Capacity Development Modules, offered the basis for the training module elaboration. Some of the topics introduced and discussed included: benefits and challenges of transboundary conservation, IUCN WCPA’s typology of Transboundary Conservation Areas, assessing the enabling environment and feasibility for initiating transboundary conservation, engaging stakeholders, negotiating joint vision and management objectives, transboundary governance and cooperative management. Apart from the presentations, the course included interactive sessions where the participants had an opportunity to practice what they had learned through practical exercises. Furthermore, the course included two problem-solving clinics where the participants could introduce real challenges and seek potential solutions from their peers.

The training course had a pilot character as during the course the participants were requested to provide their feedback and evaluation of each session. Moreover, five Steering Committee members, Clara Bocchino, Goran Gugić, Alois Lang, and Bert Lenten, and Andrea Strauss, further provided their evaluation of the entire course. All comments will feed into the elaboration of the final version of the three-day, globally applicable training module, which will be made available to a wider audience in 2019. 

The developing and testing of the training course was initiated and funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and implemented by IUCN ECARO in partnership with IUCN ELC and IUCN WCPA Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group. 

For more information, please contact Maja Vasilijević