Thematic issue of the ICPE journal Public Enterprise: Integrated management of protected areas

ICPE is continuing its involvement in the issues related to sustainable development, environment protection, lowering the CO2 emissions, promotion of the use of renewable energy sources and improving energy efficiency. For 2013, ICPE is preparing a thematic issue of the ICPE journal Public Enterprise, which will be devoted to the topic of “Integrated management of protected areas”. For preparing the issue, ICPE is discussing cooperation with the Association of Nature Parks of the Republic of Slovenia, with whose representatives ICPE met on 10 December 2012.

With these efforts, ICPE plans to establish a platform for an international exchange of knowledge and practical experience in the integrated management of protected areas.

Sustainable development is one of the more important focuses of ICPE and was in the past years actively involved in several projects on the topics (e.g. International Conference on Integrated Environmental Management of the Adriatic/Mediterranean Black Sea Coastal Areas and the Danube/Sava River Basins, November 2010; conference on Management of protected areas of nature: the example of Nature Park Goričko, May 2011)

The goal of the proposed thematic issue is thus on the one hand the strengthening of the identity of the Association of Nature Parks and setting the Slovenian model of management of protected areas into an international context. This is why the concrete practices of individual Parks plan to be presented from the viewpoint of their historical background (establishment and functioning), structural aspects of their functioning, as well as from the viewpoint of their cooperation/networking with the economic sector (that is, their role for providing new employment opportunities, their contribution to the social environment, which they are part of, etc.)

Furthermore, the proposed thematic issue will provide space for international experts (from ICPE member states and other international organisations) to contribute to the discussion with their own experiences, good practices of and innovative approaches to the management of protected areas from their own countries. The thematic issue could therefore mark the beginning of an international exchange of knowledge and solutions for an integrated management of protected areas, cross-border cooperation, and cross-border area management.

The thematic issue will thus provide a presentation of these issues from the Slovenian context (as a conceptual question and as specific practices) and the same issues addressed from an international perspective (experts from ICPE member states). It will then serve as a model of the management of protected areas, which will be made available to ICPE member states and beyond (e.g. in the form of short-term training programmes for exchange of knowledge and experience between managers of nature parks on an international level, programmes for public officials, representatives of the private sector, who are connected to the protected areas etc.)

The following topics will be included in the thematic issue:

The thematic issue will be issued at the end of May 2013.

ICPE sees the importance of the suggested thematic issue as a promotion of the concept of integrated management of protected areas and as a promotion of selected nature parks (from Slovenia and elsewhere) in an international context. Foremost, the thematic issue can provide the basis for further cooperation between participating institutions, individual authors, and countries’ representatives in international projects, including organisation of conferences, training programmes, and counselling programmes.