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CFP - Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World
The 2009 George Wright Society Biennial Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites
March 2-6, 2009 • Portland, Oregon
Submit proposals online at www.georgewright.org/gws2009.html
Deadline: October 3, 2008
Come to GWS2009 and refresh your career!
Every two years, the George Wright Society organizes Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World, the USA’s premier interdisciplinary professional meeting on parks, protected areas, and cultural sites. We invite you to join us March 2–6, 2009, for a week of reflection, reconnection, and renewal in Portland, Oregon—one of America’s loveliest, greenest cities.
The GWS is unique among professional organizations because it encourages dialogue and information exchange among all the people needed for protected area conservation, in all fields of cultural and natural resources. In recent years, 800–900 people have attended. Typically, about 60% are from the U.S. National Park Service and the conference program reflects this; in fact, the conference serves as the top-level meeting of NPS cultural and natural resource professionals. However, the scope of the conference goes well beyond the U.S. National Park System to include other federal agencies, tribes, state agencies, NGOs, academic concerns, and park systems and organizations outside the USA.
GWS2009 is your chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues, make important new contacts, get up-to-date on the latest innovations in park management, and stay current with research findings in your field. With our broad range of program offerings — including thought-provoking keynotes, wide-ranging paper and panel presentations, focused side meetings, and field trips — the GWS biennial conferences aim to be the park profession’s best all-around training value.
Themes for the conference
At GWS2009, the plenary sessions will focus on four themes, and participants are encouraged (but not required) to submit proposals that correspond with them:
Thinking Like a Mountain: Effective Collaboration in the Management of Protected Areas
When Aldo Leopold wrote the phrase “thinking like a mountain,” he was expressing the idea that long connection to a place is essential to understanding what is needed for effective stewardship. Many cultural groups, native and non-native, have lived close to the land and sea, have developed deep cultural, subsistence and spiritual connections to particular places, and have acquired extensive knowledge of cycles of life, changing landscapes, and climate. As protected area managers who share stewardship responsibility with indigenous peoples and other cultural groups, there is value in better understanding these deep connections with place. Contributions under this theme will focus on fostering communication and partnership between such communities and protected area managers.
Water for Life
The conference venue in Portland—situated close to the Pacific coast at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers—affords a unique opportunity to consider the role of protected areas in safeguarding both marine and freshwater resources. This theme also acknowledges the United Nation’s “Water for Life” Decade for Action (2005–2015. At GWS2009, this theme of the conference will emphasize stewardship of natural and cultural resources associated with marine and aquatic ecosystems in parks and protected areas.
“Keeping it Real”: Engaging with Youth
Long-term stewardship of the resources of parks, protected areas, and cultural sites is dependent on passing the values inherent in stewardship from one generation to the next. Concern is being expressed in both the professional and popular literature that changing recreational pursuits are resulting in “nature deficit disorder”—a growing disconnection between the current generation of children and the natural environment. The same is true with youth and places of cultural significance: Children are not in the woods, and neither are they in places connected to history and culture. Artificial or virtual reality has become a widely embraced substitute for hands-on, first-person engagement and learning. These changes in recreation activities also impact the health of children in the United States. A deeper understanding is needed about how these changing dynamics affect learning about history and cultural traditions, understanding and appreciating the natural world, and commitment to the preservation of both.
Hana Lima Kokua (Many hands working together, joined in a common goal)
Partnerships form the bedrock of support for protected areas. Effective collaborations bring together the resources and aspirations of multiple partners to address common goals. Protected areas in some cases function as a “hub” in a much larger network of community and regional partners and their effectiveness is often dependent on their ability to leverage the success of key partners. This is a very different approach from a more traditional “park-centric” perspective that only values partners for their direct, mostly monetary, contributions. Sessions will explore the wide range of approaches for building and managing partnerships and networks that support protected areas and conservation efforts throughout the world.
How to submit a proposal
We encourage proposals that correspond to the thematic suggestions above, but also welcome proposals on any aspect of research in, management of, and education about parks, protected areas, and cultural sites. You can propose to give a paper or poster, organize one of several kinds of sessions, or host a side meeting. All submissions must be made through the conference website, which has complete details and instructions:
www.georgewright.org/gws2009.html
Scholarship opportunities for students, Native professionals
The George Wright Society actively encourages minority students and Native professionals to participate in GWS2009. The George Melendez Wright Student Travel Scholarship provides assistance to full-time, upper-level undergrads and grad students from cultural, racial, and ethnic groups whose members have been under-represented in fields related to parks, protected areas, and cultural sites. The Native Participant Travel Grant supports indigenous people from the USA, Canada, and Mexico who are involved in the protection, management, or study of land, its biological/cultural systems and features, or Native land rights. The application deadline for both programs is October 3, 2008. For more information, go to the conference website (address above) and click the "Scholarships" menu tab.
Questions? Contact the GWS office at conferences@georgewright.org or call us at 1-906-487-9722.