Invitation and Theme

Friends of the Country Parks, Hong Kong, takes pleasure in inviting you to attend the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas 5th Conference on Protected Areas of East Asia. The Conference will be held from 21-25 June 2005 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong with the theme “Sustainable Management of Protected Areas for Future Generations” and the following provisional sub-themes which will be refined and finalized based on abstracts / reports submitted by participants:

1. Inherent resource base

1.1 Habitat and ecosystem conservation
1.2 Species conservation
1.3 Germ plasm conservation
1.4 Geodiversity and landscape conservation
1.5 Baseline assessment and valuation

2. People-site interactions

2.1 Recreation and tourism demands in wilderness sites
2.2 Visitor behaviour, activities and impacts
2.3 Visitor distribution, dispersion and concentration
2.4 Ecotourism planning and development
2.5 Education and information for minimum impacts
2.6 Indigenous people and traditional resource utilization

3. Management effectiveness and partnership

3.1 Community, political and financial support
3.2 Personnel recruitment and training
3.3 Experience sharing and exchange
3.4 Dialogue with actual and potential visitors
3.5 Partnership with local communities
3.6 Transborder cooperation
3.7 Management-research synergy
3.8 Evaluating management effectiveness