The GWS ParkForum program will feature:

• Plenary Presentations

• Core Workshop Sessions

• Supplemental Information-Sharing Sessions

• Affinity Meetings

• Special Events

• Field Trips

 

Plenary Presentations

Daily opportunities for all attendees to come together to hear about and discuss key issues. Some may be recorded and/or livestreamed.

 

Core Workshop Sessions

With input from partners, the Program Committee will develop solutions-driven Core Workshop Sessions in which participants will grapple with real-life issues and develop potential solutions to them. Based on the extensive knowledge and expertise of workshop participants, results-based desired outcomes will include proven case study solutions and success stories, good practices, and tailoring strategies to address site-specific challenges. The Core Workshop Sessions will focus on four recurring themes:

1. Responding to Climate Change threats and impacts on parks, protected/conserved areas, cultural sites, and other forms of place-based conservation. Climate change — and the disastrous loss of biodiversity, which go hand in hand — are global emergencies.  Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, reshaping not only the planet’s biological diversity but also a wide array of cultural practices that depend upon a stable natural world. Most protected areas have both cultural and natural heritage values.  Making these areas more adaptive and resilient to climate change is an essential part of humanity’s overall response. Parks, protected/conserved areas, and cultural sites must also be in the forefront of demonstrating effective and practical climate mitigation measures.

2. Integrating Natural and Cultural Heritage Conservation wherever possible. The GWS’s hallmark is bringing people from diverse backgrounds and skill sets together. In our experience, conservation outcomes — including landscape-scale conservation—are more effective and long-lasting if “nature” and “culture” are not in separate silos. While not every aspect of place-based conservation can be treated this way, there is much more scope to do this than commonly realized.

3. Ensuring that Social and Environmental Justice (more broadly, JEDI: justice, equity, diversity, inclusion) is part and parcel of place-based conservation. This is first and foremost a moral imperative to address past and continuing wrongs related to conservation activities. Beyond that, today JEDI is a prerequisite for conservation success because of larger societal demands for such redress, and to gain the support of a much broader and more representative portion of the public.

4. Exploring the broad and significant concept of the Economic Value that parks bring to communities on the local, regional, national and international levels. This value manifests in the direct economic returns parks generate from tourism. Equally if not more important, though harder to quantify, is the value of the ecological or ecosystem services parks provide to humankind for free. Economic value is important to stress because it is critical to people’s livelihood and to the political context in which all parks operate.

 

Supplemental Information-Sharing Sessions

A chance for you to share your work and ideas, these sessions will be fashioned by the Program Committee from submissions to the Call for Proposals.

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Affinity Meetings

Opportunities for groups who share a particular interest to get together.

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Special Events

Social events such as Welcoming Reception, a GWS Awards event, and more.

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Field Trips

Optional earning excursions (fee) in and near Missoula. These will take place on Friday, October 24.

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A detailed Program will be available on this page as plans shape up.