Latin American Technical Cooperation Network on National Parks, other Protected Areas and Wildlife

Background

The need to progress in the management of wildlife in Latin America and the Caribbean and the political will of the countries to share with more efficiency the available technical knowledge and experience led the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean to summon for a Round Table in Santiago, Chile, in June 1983. In this meeting the country delegates, after analyzing common and individual problems related to protected areas and wildlife management, in the diagnosis of the current state in the Region, decided to create the Latin American Technical Cooperation Network on National Parks, other Protected Areas and Wildlife as an innovating mechanism, based in available human and institutional resources. In the opportunity a national agency was nominated as regional coordinator, with a rotary replacement and the FAO Regional Office was assigned the role of Technical Secretariat.

Structure of the Network

The Network is a group of institutions and specialists working in the issue of protected areas and wildlife in the Region, which are registered at the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. Each country has a National Coordinator, who acts as focal point and liaison with national members. Currently, the Network is constituted by approximately 800 members.

The Parks Network has at present to sub-networks: the Southern Cone Animal Life Sub-Network and the Amazon Protected Areas Sub-Network (SURAPA).