2011
Adriano Mello
Head of Serra do Mar State Park
Attended course: XI Course in Protected Areas Management, Colorado State University
“The course was a landmark in my understanding about the future of our PAs, whose management model is misguided and therefore needs to be restructured. Private initiative is essential for this new model where the parks are transformed into true public ventures. I learned that benchmarking is crucial. It is possible to find creative, innovative and shared solutions to making this thing work, without recreating the wheel. If it were possible, I would say to all managers, public use teams and medium- and high-level technicians and administrators at the agencies that manage Brazil’s PAs, that they should have experiences like in this course; to step outside of their comfort zone, where the resistance and the culture of “no” against new management models still reign”.
Credit: Personal archive
Érika Polverasi Faria
Project Director of the Brazilian Fund for Biodiversity
Attended course: XI Course in Protected Areas Management, Colorado State University
“I’m not a PA manager, but I manage projects that work to support the establishment of protected areas. The course was important for the experience of living in protected areas, learning about the different types of services and for the sharing of experiences and knowledge with other participants. I had never experienced this type of course before. My previous experiences were of a more academic nature, and this course has provided an experience that went beyond the classroom and into numerous campgrounds, where physical exertion also was important and healthy. The work was very hands-on, and all participants took part”.
