Several priority MPA training topic areas were identified by regional MPA
managers and practioners through the 2005 outreach report and the Guam meeting.
These include MPA management planning, enforcement, monitoring, outreach &
education, and overall MPA administration. However, because none of these was
clearly identified by all workshop participants, the top priority was not
obvious. Therefore, PIMPAC member have agreed that an effective approach would
be to develop a long-term strategy for building a series of training modules
that address the essential components of an effective MPA (e.g., planning,
community outreach and participation, monitoring, enforcement, etc). The first
modular training topic was decided to be management planning. While the focus
of this training was be to support existing sites in the development of
management plans, this information will also be useful for areas that currently
do not have MPAs.
Throughout the next couple of years a PIMPAC will also
support technical assistance to each jurisdiction to help carry out management
planning training for a larger group of local islanders. These island-specific
trainings will be more focused on a particular island or MPA site planning
needs. It is intended that the island coordinators will use the skills learned
from the regional training workshop and become the on-island experts to continue
to assist with future trainings and planning processes.
It is anticipated that
second year training activities will focus on a second regional training module,
as well as more island-specific trainings or exchanges. The year-two training
topic will be decided within the second half of the first year’s activities.
Through this approach it is hoped that island-wide capacity will be built within
the next five years, resulting in a team of experts on each island that can
support effective MPA management.
