THE MONTPELLIER DECLARATION

Attending that Mediterranean is an important hot spot for biodiversity with one of the greatest human pressure in the world,

Attending that Mediterranean as a defined region with similar issues and concerns but contrasting levels of opportunities and skills base,

Attending that capacity building is one of the theme to be addressed during the Durban World Park Congress,

Attending meeting of the organisation providing training for protected areas managers was initiated in 1999 in Cilento (Italy) under IUCN's leadership, continued in Tour du Valat (France) in February 2001 under ATEN and Tour du Valat's organisation and considering that since this 2nd meeting in Tour du Valat, the network of Training organisations for natural & protected areas in the Mediterranean has been little active in terms of multilateral co-operation, although a few punctual projects were carried out as a follow-up (e.g. RSCN Jordan - ATEN - Tour du Valat co-operation). Considering that the lack of a clear leader, with a mandate from the group to co-ordinate and stimulate the whole network, and with a commitment to allocate the necessary time and resources to this task was the key reasons of little activities of this network,

On 23 - 24 January 2003, 36 participants from 11 countries met in Montpellier - France for the 3rd meeting of the training organisations network for the management of natural areas in the Mediterranean region, the theme of which was :
"New skills needed for the XXIst century : which training needs for natural areas management ?".
This meeting was organised as a partnership between the Région Languedoc-Roussillon (Agence Méditerranéenne de l'Environnement), the Comité Français de l'UICN, the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, the Atelier Technique des Espaces Naturels (ATEN), and IUCN-Mediterranean Co-operation Centre (Malaga). It aimed at :
" Analysing the new training needs for staff involved in the management of natural areas in the Mediterranean ;
" Define the broad lines of a common project that could help Mediterranean Training organisations to cater for these new needs ;
" Contribute to recognising the Mediterranean specificity's at the World Park Congress (Durban sept 2 003).

Conclusions

The participants agreed on the following conclusions :

1. the participants unanimously thanked the Région Languedoc-Roussillon (Agence Méditerranéenne de l'Environnement), the Comité Français de l'UICN, the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, the Atelier Technique des Espaces Naturels (ATEN), and IUCN-Mediterranean Co-operation Centre (Malaga), for their help in sponsoring and organising the meeting.

2. The participants defined a common vision of keys issues of Protected areas in the next ten years. 14 themes has been defined as priority issues for the Mediterranean Protected areas. i) contribution to life support, ii) capacity building, iii) ecosystem approach, iv) local community participation approach, v)quality of life, vi) economic development, vii) financial sustainability, viii) education awareness, ix) integration of policies in effective management tools, x) use of new technologies in management process, xi) staff adaptability, xii) management of human pression on Pas, xiii) sustain cultural diversity in Pas.

3. The participants identified and agreed on major key factors of changes and defined the new skills needed to address these issues. They developed the outline of a common project wish address some of these major skills.

This project is based on three statements :

a°) IUCN Mediterranean Co-operation Centre will co-ordinate and facilitate the exchange of training experience, methods and tools through on-line dynamic data base at Mediterranean level. All participants are committed to feed the data base and to collaborate in this process.

b°) Under the ATEN co-ordination for one year, RSCN, Pangea, Formez, TAIEB, Tour du Valat, Rac/Spa will define a project for training on sustainable development within the Mediterranean protected areas. This project should promote networking and exchanges of methods, tools, research and experimentation in the field of capacity building (in an appropriated way) on sustainable development issues.
IUCN Mediterranean Co-operation Centre and UICN French Committee will facilitate and support a financial proposal to be submitted to donors organisation in order to start with concrete actions before Durban World Park Congress.

c°) IUCN Mediterranean co-operation centre will promote this project to the Durban World Park Congress.

4. The Mediterranean PAs Conference, to be held in Murcia on 26-30 March 2003, will have as a priority topic "Training in PAs". It will be a unique occasion for the Mediterranean training expert to formalize regional proposals and recommendations for Durban.

5. Since parallel initiatives to promote a better Training co-ordination exist at the Mediterranean level (under IUCN-Mediterranean Co-operation Centre) and at European level (under the proposed IUCN-WCPA European Training Task Force which met on 25th January), and since these geographic areas largely overlap in southern Europe, the participants recommended these two IUCN bodies to closely liase and co-ordinate their strategies so as to avoid duplication of efforts, particularly by those centres located in both regions.

6. The network should continue to meet on a regular basis, hosted by each of the participants members in turn. Initially these meetings may be linked to/ focused on the development on the joint project.

ANNEX 1 : Final Participants list (ATEN)

ANNEX 2 : Final programme (ATEN)

ANNEX 3 : The history of the process : from Cilento to Montpellier (TdV : CP)

ANNEX 4 : Common vision of keys issues in the management of PAs for the next ten year, as identified by the participants (ATEN : Results of Session 4, from paperboards)

ANNEX 5 : New skills needed to address these issues (ATEN, Results of Session 6, from paperboards)

ANNEX 6 : Outline of a common project which addresses some of these skills (ATEN, after consultation with the 6 other partners)