Welcome to the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) International Programs Quarterly Bulletin, issued by the NPS Office of International Affairs (OIA). Additional information on NPS international activities can be found at the NPS OIA webpage: http://www.nps.gov/oia
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Rocky Mountain Supports Estes Park’s Sister City |
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Wally the Wolf World Heritage Junior Ranger Website Launched |
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Mount Rushmore Hosts Suriname Defense Minister |
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World Heritage Day 2009 |
Rocky Mountain National Park staff were invited to provide technical assistance to protected areas in Costa Rica as part of the sister city relationship between Estes Park, Colorado and the Municipality of Monteverde, Costa Rica. The protected areas include Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve, Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve, Children’s Eternal Rainforest and Arenal National Park, all units of the Agua y Paz Biosphere Reserve. NPS evaluated and made recommendations in: trail construction and maintenance; inventory and monitoring of natural resources; interpretive programs and methods including interpretive media and exhibits; and the effectiveness of sales outlets as adjuncts to interpretive programs. Rocky Mountain Nature Association also provided support to this sister city initiative to promote the sustainable management of protected areas in concert with their gateway communities. For more details, contact Kyle Patterson at kyle_patterson@nps.gov
The United States played a major role in developing the World Heritage Convention, an international treaty seen by many as the global expression of the American national park ideal. Despite this role, most Americans know little about this unique and important program to bestow recognition on sites of global significance, such as the Statue of Liberty, Everglades and Yellowstone. To help our future leaders, our youth, learn more about World Heritage, the NPS Office of International Affairs created a World Heritage Junior Ranger program, adopting as its mascot “Wally the World Heritage Wolf.” On a newly launched website, Wally guides kids through ten different fun activities and questions with a Junior Ranger badge and certificate as reward to all who finish. This is the first NPS Program in the Washington Support Office to have a Junior Ranger Program. For more information, contact
China’s Ministry of Housing & Urban-Rural Development co-hosted a workshop on “Revising China’s World Heritage Tentative List,” attended by more than 150 Chinese officials from existing and tentative World Heritage Sites and a handful of international representatives from IUCN, the UNESCO World Heritage Center and the U.S. National Park Service. Invited foreign participants talked about recent efforts to revise national Tentative Lists, in compliance with the World Heritage Centre’s guidance that national Tentative Lists should include sites to be nominated within a decade and the World Heritage Committee’s limit of nominating two sites per year per country. Some nations have conducted a bottom-up approach – soliciting interested sites to apply for inclusion after meeting criteria - to revising their national Tentative Lists, while others have been able to complement that with a top-down gap analysis of sites that meet representivity goals of the Convention. With 88 sites on their Tentative List, China now seeks to determine priorities, overlaps and opportunities for consolidation among its candidates to reduce their list to a more manageable 20-25 sites. For more information, contact Jonathan Putnam at Jonathan_Putnam@nps.gov or Rudy D’Alessandro at rudy_dalessandro@nps.gov
Under a U.S.-Australia Wildfire Arrangement to provide mutual firefighting assistance, five National Park Service staff with experience in combating wildland fires joined more than two dozen other U.S. firefighters on Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams to assist Australian colleagues in the State of Victoria to combat one of the worst and most deadly wildfire seasons in its history. Several of these NPS staff served in key leadership positions, including the Chief Liaison to the Australian government and team leads to the International BAER teams. The emergency stabilization-rehabilitation teams worked with the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Country Fire Authority (CFA), and Parks Victoria (PV) to supplement their agency field officers in accessing the burned area assessments on public and private lands. More than 150 fatalities had occurred due to prolonged drought conditions, high temperatures, and high winds. Since the inception of the wildfire agreement, there have been a number of Australian and American fire management crews deployed to assist in combating ever more severe fire seasons. For more information, contact Tom Nichols at tom_nichols@nps.gov, or see http://www.doi.gov/news/09_News_Releases/021309a.html
As part of a commitment to sharing its expertise, the US National Park Service (NPS) is offering training opportunities to qualified candidates who wish to learn from the US experience in managing and protecting World Heritage Sites. All expenses paid extended residencies in US parks designated as World Heritage Sites will be available to site managers and staff of World Heritage Sites in developing nations. The training opportunity will allow selected individuals to work alongside NPS professionals in a variety of areas including resource management, concessions, interpretation and education, planning, and law enforcement. The NPS Office of International Affairs, in cooperation with park partners, will pay for and arrange for travel to the US, while individual host parks will provide housing and a modest living stipend. Candidates should be English speakers willing to spend a minimum of 6 weeks in the US. Residencies of up to 4 months can be arranged. The Office of International Affairs will assist each selected individual in securing the appropriate visa to allow entry to the United States. For more information, please contact Stephen Morris, at Stephen_morris@nps.gov, or Jon Putnam, at jonathan_putnam@nps.gov
As part of a U.S. Department of State project to establish a National Training Institute for the Preservation of Iraqi Cultural Heritage in Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq, the NPS Chief Historical Architect was asked to visit Erbil along with a representative from the Winterthur Museum and Country Estate and the U.S. Department of State to select a building to house the institute and to begin preliminary design. The old Erbil library has been selected as the building and the preliminary design process has begun. The institute will offer two programs: a Collections Conservation and Management Program and an Archaeology and Historic Preservation Program. The purpose of the institute is to focus U.S. and international resources and expertise on rebuilding the professional capabilities of Iraq’s museum, heritage and archaeology organizations. The NPS will work with State Department and other partners to develop all aspects of the Archaeology and Historic Preservation Program, including curriculum development, delivery, faculty selection, admissions, overall program evaluation, and design of a building to house the institute. For more information, contact Randy Biallas, at randy_biallas@nps.gov
National Park Service specialists visited Japan to discuss the future nomination of Mount Fuji as a World Heritage Site, which was added to Japan’s World Heritage Tentative List in 2007. At a symposium on “Mount Fuji as a Nature Park,” organized by the Yamanashi Institute of Environmental Studies, they shared the NPS experience managing U.S. World Heritage Sites and presented talks on “Park Management and Children’s Interpretation” and “Fundamentals of Interpretation and Visitor Experience.” The multiplicity of jurisdictions confronted by Japanese park management is a challenging model, and one that is true over much of the world. It also matches the situation for many NPS heritage and affiliated areas. For more information, contact Diane Chalfant, at diana_chalfant@nps.gov or Sam Vaughn, at sam_vaughn@nps.gov
This newsletter is distributed quarterly to NPS staff, partners and other interested parties. If you wish to be added to or removed from the distribution list, please contact Rudy D’Alessandro at rudy_dalessandro@nps.gov. We encourage NPS colleagues to submit brief summaries of international activities and accomplishments suitable for inclusion in this bulletin.
Each year the NPS International Volunteers in Parks (IVIP) Program coordinates training for approximately 125 individuals in a variety of fields and settings, with a goal to equip them with skills they can bring home. It’s rewarding to hear from past IVIPs on how the seeds planted during their NPS volunteer programs are growing. Ivana Milenkovic, who trained at Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center, is now a biology teacher in her native Serbia. During her IVIP program at Indiana Dunes, Ivana learned to create nature programs to excite and engage children aged 4 to 12 by leading three daytime educational activities to teach them about the ecosystem, wildlife, earth science, and conservation. Ivana has incorporated environmental education into her lesson plans for her 5th grade class, and is also sharing her love of nature in a science exploration after school program and a green volunteer program involving her local community. Children’s nature programs are uncommon in Serbia, so Ivana’s programs are significant, often the first opportunities for children to participate in such activities. Ivana reports that she can tell by the smiles on the children’s faces that her lessons about nature are reaching them. She is truly bringing the NPS mission to children in Serbia, and to her entire community, thus illustrating the impact that NPS can have through IVIP programs. For more information, contact Linda Bennett at linda_bennett@nps.gov.
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According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Saturday, April 18, 2009 is the International Day for Monuments and Sites, also known as World Heritage Day. Observed every April 18th since 2001, the theme of World Heritage Day 2009 is “Heritage and Science.” ICOMOS intends for the day to raise public awareness concerning the diversity of the world’s heritage and the efforts required to protect and conserve them, as well as to draw attention to their vulnerability. ICOMOS members and committees are holding a variety of activities, conferences and other events. America’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park, part of the Chaco Culture World Heritage Site, will hold a ‘Monuments & Sites’ bake sale to observe World Heritage Day. For more information, contact Barbara West, at Barbara_west@nps.gov or visit http://www.nps.gov/chcu or http://www.international.icomos.org/18thapril/index.html
