Collaboration between conservation actors
Over the ten-year project, REPC-MD has achieved to connect over 1,300 conservation actors representing 215 conservation institutions and creating a network of conservation educators and practitioners across Madagascar. We started by inviting a few faculty members and professionals from NGOs to collaborate together to develop training materials. We maintained this network active through involving larger and more diverse actors in our local meetings, short trainings and group discussions. Our capacity development program for PA management is a joint collaboration with the Ministry in charge of PAs, universities and trainings centers, and local and international NGOs. Our collaborators from the Ministry helped us advance official recognition of the Standards. Universities and training centers offered new competency based training programs. And professionals gave us real-world experiences as inputs for the development of competence register.
We offer various ways for interested people to get involved in the project: in small groups, in workshops, as trainers, as assessors. • REPC-MD started as a multi-institutional consortium and strong partnership of international NGOs and Malagasy universities, NGOs, and government institutions, which really was an asset for networking and partnership.
It was important to base our project on local consultations in order to identify competences for PA management. This activity has involved a diverse group of actors from academics to professionals and even local communities. We were able to collect significant inputs to build the national standards of competences for PA management and to give people opportunities to discuss on PA in general. Since there are very few publications, we preferred group discussions during workshops to have people share their experiences. REPC-MD also has built tradition of exchanges, making it easier to reach out to different people.