PAMS

Many of Africa’s protected areas are under threat and exposed to inadequate management and degradation. A suite of Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) tools have been developed to enable conservation organisations to measure management effectiveness. However these evaluation tools are only part of the solution. These tools assess and report on areas where management have excelled and have fallen short, but by no means ensure effective management. They cannot guarantee that the evaluation outcomes and recommendations are actually implemented and addressed.

As in the case of many successful internationally competitive corporate enterprises, a management system which ensures continual improvement through adaptive management and includes MEE tools as key components of the management system, is far more likely to guarantee management effectiveness.

The Game Rangers Association of Africa have therefore developed a Management System known as PAMS, that is believed to be the ideal tool for conservation agencies to achieve and ensure the effective management of their protected areas and conservation programmes.

PAMS provides a defined management structure to allow conservation authorities such as yourself to better control, measure and continually improve their performance. PAMS is based largely on the ISO14001 EMS approach and includes the usual ‘plan-do-check-review’ cycle for continuous improvement. However, PAMS is simpler, more flexible and has been specifically tailored for conservation.

The major benefits that PAMS will bring to protected areas and/or conservation programmes are:

· Threats will be identified upfront and the necessary programmes put in place to manage these threats

· Continual improvement & adaptive management through regular reviews of progress and challenges

· Compliance to applicable legislation and to international conservation agreements

· Financial benefits through improved efficiencies, best practices, duplication elimination and preventive action

· More effectively market your organization to customers, investors and the public.

· Advise how current management measures can be improved and which gaps need to be filled in order to meet the requirements of the PAMS standards for ensuring improved performance

· Facilitate the development of best practice standards to ensure sound management of biodiversity, ecosystem services and cultural resources

· Train staff in the PAMS management approach and building the necessary capacity to ensure the successful continuation of PAMS

This will all be done in close collaboration with staff and with representatives of key stakeholder groups. This will include consultative workshops and training sessions, and where appropriate components and standards are already in place, these will be integrated in order to avoid duplication

Implementation can take anything from 1 to 6 months. This largely depends on the scope of where PAMS will be implemented. In other words, what sections of the protected areas need to be covered by PAMS. Will it be implemented in one protected area or several protected areas, or should it be first implemented in one section (e.g. game capture unit, invasive alien plant clearing operations) and thereafter be rolled out and implemented into other sections?

The Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA) is a professional and international Not for Profit NGO. The GRAA was established in 1970, and commits itself to the preservation, conservation and where possible, restoration of Africa's bio-diversity and the continued existence of its wilderness.

It has over 800 members, who have many years of conservation and protected area management experience throughout Africa.

· Endorsed by senior representatives of the South African Dept. of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, Endangered Wildlife Trust, Peace Parks Foundation, Conservation International, Wildlife & Environment Society of Southern Africa and WWF Tanzania

Being implemented by Selous-Niassa Wildlife Protection Corridor Project (international conservation project between Tanzania and Mozambique) & Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife (Invasive Alien Species Programme).

Efforts are underway to establish a Protected Area Stewardship (PAS) Council through which conservation authorities such as yourself can attain certification of your protected area or conservation programme. Thus, although the main objective of PAMS is to act as a tool to help and ensure effective management, the option of certification could also be obtained at a later stage. If required, this could include 3rd party certification of outsourced tourism and/ or hunting agents against the relevant PAS standards.

The costs for the implementation of PAMS is dependent on the size of the property, complexity of activities and existing conservation and management infrastructure, capacity, etc. The costs can thus only be accurately determined once an initial investigation and site visit has taken place. PAMS is not a commercial venture, thus in certain cases reduced costs can be negotiated or donor funding could potentially be sourced to assist with the process.

‘‘What I really like about it is that, since the system is extremely well developed and meticulous, it compensates for the lack of knowledge and experience of its implementers, i.e. the local guys from the communities would easily be able to manage the reserve themselves to a very high standard’’ Project Coordinator- Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area

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