Parks & Community Seminar

16 April 2007

Parks Forum & Parks Victoria have great pleasure in inviting your participation in a

PARKS & COMMUNITY SEMINAR

Monday 16 April 2007

Sundowner Hovell Tree, Cnr Hume Highway & Hovell St, Albury NSW

 In the last 30 years in the face of broadscale threats such as acid rain, global warming and land and water degradation, protected area parks have moved from environmental saviours to environmental victims.  In the same period urban and metropolitan parks have moved from pleasant retreats to cornerstones of community health and well-being.

Clearly the fate of parks is determined not simply by the quality of their internal management but by the quality of their connection to the wider community.

What are the key opportunities and impediments to improving this connection from physical, cultural and managerial perspectives?

Three world-renowned speakers will address this question.  Following their presentations, seminar participants will have the opportunity to engage the speakers in a facilitated discussion.

PROGRAM  

The Seminar is proudly supported by Parks and Leisure Australia and the World Commission on Protected Areas.

George Stankey

Dr. George H. Stankey recently retired from his role as a Research Social Scientist with the U. S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon.  For the past 35 years, his research has focused on the linkages among people, natural resources and the institutions that govern their relationships.  This includes such diverse issues as the role of natural environments as settings for recreation experiences, the impacts of alternative resource management programs and policies on local communities, and the development of management frameworks to integrate human dimensions in resource management decisions.  More recently, he has lead an evaluation of efforts to implement adaptive management as a key strategy in management of 10 million hectares of public forest land in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Stankey has served on the Executive Board of the International Union of Forestry Research Organisations and is a member of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas.

Rob Small

Rob Small is a leading figure in the Parks industry in New Zealand and Australia. Rob is presently the world President elect of the International Federation of Park and Recreation Administration. He has held leading roles for both the New Zealand Institute of Parks and the New Zealand Recreation Association and was awarded the Ian Galloway Award in 1996 for outstanding contribution to the parks and recreation industry in New Zealand. He was formerly the Director of Regional Parks for the Auckland Region as well as having senior roles in Australia as the GM Environment and Recreation for the City of Greater Geelong and the Chief Executive Officer of Colac Otway Shire.

Rob is a Trustee of the Parks Forum and a Director, Trustee and Judge for the International Awards for Liveable Communities, which annually holds an international best practice and benchmarking competition for the world’s most liveable communities.

Rob is currently working as an independent consultant specialising in conservation and environmental strategic planning and leadership coaching.

Graeme Worboys

Graeme Worboys has over 34 years’ protected area management experience and is a Vice Chair of the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas. He has worked as a ranger, park superintendent, regional manager and executive director with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and as a protected area management consultant.

Graeme is joint editor of IUCN’s 2006 international protected area management book “Managing Protected Areas: A Global Guide” published by Earthscan and is lead author of the 2005 Australian university text “Protected Area Management, Principles and Practice” (Second Edition) published by Oxford University Press. He is a guest lecturer on protected area management at the University of Tasmania. Graeme has provided specialist adviser services to projects in Australia, China, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Nepal, Canada, New Zealand and Ecuador.

As Vice Chair (Mountains Biome) for WCPA, Graeme is currently leading an international initiative dealing with the management of continental scale connectivity conservation.

Please Note: For those Commonwealth, ACT, NSW and Victorian parks staff attending the Australian Alps climate change workshop at Falls Creek, the seminar program has been arranged to allow for travel to Falls Creek (1.5 hrs) in time for the opening of the workshop

For more information about the organisers see: 

http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/

http://www.parksforum.org/

http://www.parks-leisure.com.au/

http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/