PUP is partnering with the Tropical Science Center (CCT) to offer an online course in Spanish on natural and cultural resource condition-based zoning for protected areas in Latin America. The course will take place from March 10 to April 5, 2022, and will be taught by PUP Executive Director Jon Kohl and PUP Technical Service Member Dr. Bernal Herrera-Fernández.

Learn more and register for the course here: https://pupconsortium.wildapricot.org/event-4547727

The five-session Zoom- and Slack-based course, which was discussed in a free introductory webinar (YouTube), seeks to increase collective capacity to effectively and adaptively manage protected areas. The model was developed by the two organizations as an answer to some of the problems that arise when applying the conventional decades-old model of zoning based on the regulation of human uses.

“This approach, designed for developing country protected area managers, reconciles two approaches often required by government park agencies but are incompatible: zoning based on human uses which focuses on punishing and prohibiting human activity and the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation which applies an adaptive management approach to conserving a protected area´s principal conservation objects or priorities,” Kohl said.Notably, CCT and PUP’s previous collaboration on the subject in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in 2019 produced an article in IUCN’s scientific journal PARKS and a corresponding methodological guide in Spanish

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In accomplishing its goal to spread this new methodology across Latin America, the course and webinar are tailored for practitioners and decision-makers in Latin America (e.g. planners, managers, conservationists). Sessions consist of lectures, and a discussion about the corresponding session theme. For the final project, participants will work in groups to apply the methodology to an area of their selection.

The course costs $129 per participant, which includes:

• Access to the learning platforms

• A certificate signed by the sponsor organizations once the participant completes the final Project

• Updates about the methodology’s progress, if the participant so desires

There is a discount for PUP and CCT members as well as groups of three or more.

Course Instructors: MSc. Jon Kohl                  
Dr. Bernal Herrera-Fernández

The class is full at 50 people, so don’t hesitate to claim your spot now!

Click here for more information and registration in the course.

Press contact: Olivia Parrott publications@pupconsortium.net