On the occasion of its meeting in Almaty, on 30 May 2018, the EABRN Steering Committee has expressed its will to continue and intensify its training activities, involving in these efforts the Biosphere Reserves themselves, focusing on their actual needs for improvement as well as their demonstrated good practices and capacities. To this end, an analysis needed to be performed on both the actual needs and the good practices of these BRs, which could serve as a basis to build a training programme for the coming 2 years.
A questionnaire has been elaborated and disseminated by the Secretariat in Fall 2018, in order to collect precise and concise information on points of excellence and training needs of the EABRN Biosphere Reserves (see Annex 2). A total of 62 duly filled questionnaires have been collected through the EABRN MAB National Committees, and their analysis completed by the Secretariat in July 2019.
There were some important delays by some EABRN MAB National Committees in providing the Secretariat with duly filled questionnaires, in great part due to the fact that, in most cases, these questionnaires had to be translated first from English to domestic language then, once compiled, from domestic language to English again.
In Fall 2021, the series of 6 online training workshops was held in collaboration with the MAB National Committee of Korea and Korean National Commission for UNESCO on topics such as: Innovation in monitoring activities in BRs, ecotourism, co-management of multi-designated sites, the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework & Panel discussion on Kunming declaration and ESD in BRs (See Annex 8).
The report attached in Annex 2 was released in July 2019. It synthetizes the main results of this analysis, and suggests some possible activities to satisfy the present main requests for capacity-building efforts. Based on this information, 3 training options or schemes were considered:
Option 1: Free exchanges among BRs in EABRN countries
EABRN members can encourage their BRs to develop at any suitable time exchanges with sister BRs in the network, using the information provided by the report to guide them in the identification of BRs matching the best their needs. These exchanges would be undertaken by BRs themselves, possibly with the support of their MAB NCs.
MAB NCs would report on results of these exchange during EABRN regular meetings.
The role of the Secretariat would be limited to the facilitation of contacts among MAB NCs and BRs when and where needed, and a final analysis of results obtained through these exchanges.
Option 2: Exchanges among BRs in EABRN countries supported by the Secretariat
BRs could be in need of financial support to undertake an exchange programme, and the EABRN Secretariat called to financially support such exchanges between matching BRs. Considering the resources made available to EABRN activities by the Republic of Korea, support (including coverage of travel costs and accommodation fees) could be provided for 2 representatives per country. Participants in such supported exchanges should be staff from BRs in priority, with a sufficient knowledge of English or another foreign language in use in the BRs to be visited. In the case 2 participants in the exchange scheme would come from the same BR, we would advise that one should be a young professional from the management team and one young scientist associated to the same BR (with at least one of the 2 speaking English). This would serve the double purpose of improving managerial skills of BRs staff, while deepening the understanding of BRs needs by young scientists.
They would spend from 5 to 10 days in a hosting BR ready to welcome them, dedicate them some time and show them their good practices in the field of interest. The 2 participants would then report to their BR management and make recommendations on areas to be improved. This report should include concrete elements to be shared with the management board and the local stakeholders with whom they could elaborate a plan for improvement. 1 participant per country would then finally be invited to participate in the next EABRN meeting (Mongolia, Spring 2020) to report on these training activities, lessons learned and follow-up actions undertaken.
The role of MAB NCs: MAB NCs are expected to help the Secretariat identify the 2 candidates per country for this exchange scheme, and put them in contact with the Secretariat in order to let us arrange their travel and accommodation in close coordination with the receiving BR. MAB NCs are also expected to encourage and monitor the follow-up actions, as they would be reported at the next EABRN meeting.
The role of the Secretariat would contact the receiving BR and provide its support to arrange and financially support travel and accommodation. The Secretariat would also provide participants with some instructions to facilitate the exchange and let them draw benefit from it.
Option 3: Training Seminars for BRs staff from EABRN countries
Considering finally the strong focalization on some priority areas (see more details in Annex 8) such as:
• “Educational/Training programmes & materials on Ecology, Biodiversity, SD”;
• “Sustainable territorial development and ecotourism” , or;
• “Local stakeholders participation in BR governance and activities”;
it could be indicated also to organize and/or send participants from EABRN BRs in international training courses, workshops or schools addressing these issues.
In such a case, the capacity of support would remain at the same: 2 participants per country. The 2 participants per country should be staff from BRs in priority, with a sufficient knowledge of English or another foreign language in use in the courses to be attended. In the case 2 participants in the exchange scheme would come from the same BR, we would advise that one should be a young professional from the management team and one young scientist associated to the same BR (with at least one of the 2 speaking English). This would serve the double purpose of improving managerial skills of BRs staff, while deepening the understanding of BRs needs by young scientists.
The participants benefitting from support would then report to their BR management and make recommendations on areas to be improved. This report should include concrete elements to be shared with the management board and the local stakeholders with whom they could elaborate a plan for improvement. Like in Option 2, one participant per country would then finally be invited to participate in the next EABRN meeting (Mongolia, Spring 2020) to report on these training activities, lessons learned and follow-up actions undertaken.
The role of MAB NCs: MAB NCs are expected to help the Secretariat identify the 2 candidates per country for these training opportunities, and put them in contact with the Secretariat in order to let us arrange their travel and accommodation in close coordination with the organizers of the course, workshop or school. MAB NCs are also expected to encourage and monitor the follow-up actions, as they would be reported at the next EABRN meeting.
The role of the Secretariat would contact the organizers of the course, workshop or school where the selected participants would be sent, and provide its support to arrange and financially support their travel and accommodation (including fees if required by the organizers). The Secretariat would also provide participants with some instructions to facilitate their attendance and follow-up actions.
In the course of preparation of this report, the Secretariat was contacted by the Trento School of Management (Italy) with a proposal of Winter Academy organized in Trento from 24 to 30 November 2019, titled: Winter Academy on Tourism Management for UNESCO Designated Sites in Natural Areas. This Academy was expected to be highly participative and interactive, built around pilot cases brought by the organizers and the invited experts, but also allowing practical exercises on cases to be brought by the participants themselves. It would have provided participants with:
• A deeper understanding of tourism management in natural areas;
• New skills to implement effective solutions to the problems of unbalanced tourism development in natural areas;
• Expertise in putting in place effective strategies to drive the change towards sustainable goals within natural and protected area.
Members of the EABRN Steering Committee were kindly requested to review this report and provide their comments and corrections by 15th of August 2019, as well as to indicate their choice between Option 2 and Option 3. In the case of Option 3, they were also asked to indicate whether they would consider the proposal of the Winter Academy in Trento a good way to implement Option 3, considering in particular:
• The very short time left to implement training activities in 2019, as initially foreseen;
• That fostering cooperation and capacity-building on BRs management related issues such as ecotourism is among the main priorities of the network, and;
• That about 50% of the BRs responding to the questionnaire on training needs had expressed their high interest in issues related to Sustainable territorial development and ecotourism.
Unfortunately, a consensus on this proposal could not be reached and training activities could not be started in 2019. While 6 on 7 EABRN members declared to be in agreement with the proposal of sending 2 representatives per country to the Winter Academy in Italy, and some of them already nominated those representatives, this proposal was strongly opposed by the MAB National Committee of the Republic of Korea, in particular consideration of the fact that the proposed training would have been held outside East Asia, in contradiction of non-written principles of the EABRN cooperation the Secretariat was not aware of. In the light of these facts, and considering that changing the main structure and modality of network activities such as the training ones would need careful discussion and consensus among all members, it was decided that:
• The whole issue would have been brought again in front of the EABRN Steering Committee in its next meeting in Mongolia in Spring 2020, for further discussion and a final decision;
• All members would have been asked to think about this issue of training and come well prepared to that meeting with, hopefully, concrete suggestions on how these activities could be implemented in the benefit of EABRN Biosphere Reserves and the respect of the needs they have expressed.
Because of COVID-19, in-presence meetings/events could not be held in 2020, and on the occasion of the virtual EABRN meeting held on September – 20 October 2020 (see Summary Report in Annex 3), the issue was further discussed, leading to the following decisions:
· EABRN members agreed on the principle that, ideally, training workshops should be held at the same location where EABRN meetings are held, in order to make savings on the budget while allowing for more members to be involved in these activities (as both experts and/or beneficiaries);
· EABRN members also agreed that the training activities in 2021 will be held in Mongolia, back to back to the 16th EABRN meeting;
· EABRN members finally agreed that the focus of 2021 training activities would be on ecotourism development, as this topic allows for an integration of many other expressed needs related to improving planning and management of BRs.
The Secretariat was finally asked to further explore the possibility to also support in 2021 training activities dedicated to Transboundary BR development and management, which could benefit in particular Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia as they are sharing TBRs.
On the occasion of the extraordinary meeting held on 26 April 2021, all representatives attending that day stressed the importance of keeping the network active in 2021, and of giving continuity to our efforts to support a growing network of biosphere reserves in East Asia with training activities as well as the publication of guidelines. With the agreement and support of the donor, the Secretariat started the series of online training activities which were introduced in the present document. The training webinars addressed topics of interest which have been identified in agreement with the Steering Committee, and involved trainers from various countries, in the greatest part suggested by the members of the Steering Committee.
At the request of the members, the training webinars were held during September – October 2021. Because of the diversity of languages in the network, the webinars were held entirely in English (See Annex 9).
The participation in the training webinars was free of charge and open to all members of the East Asian Biosphere Reserves Network (staff and stakeholders of biosphere reserves, members of the MAB National Committees and associated experts from universities, research institutions, and UNESCO Chairs).
Timeline and topics
