Community Outreach
Our approach to partnership and collaboration.
LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Local communities are the key to protected areas, and the Făgăraș Mountains are one of the few remaining large areas without human settlements on our continent. Yet, they are surrounded by 28 communes, who have an important connection to the mountains.
Creating a new national park would change the local economy and, in order to develop alternatives for the local communities, an intensive dialogue is necessary. We need to understand opinions, beliefs, and fears, together with the economic situation of these local communities in order to develop measures which are fit for the local conditions.
There are a lot of misperceptions about what a national park is and what kinds of restrictions come with it. There is a need for a widespread information campaign and we need to get people ready to benefit from our conservation enterprise programme.
Our project will develop a stakeholder platform to give local people a voice, listen to their concerns, and give them the opportunity to participate in the process of developing a new national park. We will organise several local events to celebrate and highlight the natural wonders of the Făgăraș Mountains, organise exchange programmes with other protected areas, and school and volunteer programmes.
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BUILDING AN EDUCATIONAL CENTRE
Foundation Conservation Carpathia has started building an Environmental Field Education Centre that will host various school and eco-volunteer programmes, ranger trainings, and events. This is part of a larger strategy of developing a multi-functional CARPATHIA Centre, which consists of a number of geographically distinct components. During the last year we have developed a detailed concept, which includes:
- Administrative centre;
- Information Centre with auditorium/films, exhibition;
- Info-points for tourism services;
- Ranger station/biological station to host international researchers;
- Wildlife hides/lodge for unique wilderness and wildlife experiences
- Campgrounds and tourism infrastructure.
We will also continue to train local guides for our wildlife and nature tourism programme, will organise training events for local tourism entrepreneurs, and will assist them in developing these businesses to become truly sustainable and successful.
COMMUNICATION
Communication to people on the local, regional, national, and international level is important in order to present our vision and to get feedback from all these participants. Communication is also a basis for our conservation enterprise programme to make people hear about this beautiful area.
Foundation Conservation Carpathia has its own communications team. Our presence in social media, a good and trustworthy relationship with journalists and the high quality of our products are key elements to successfully spreading the word.
