A two days regional workshop for the ongoing project “Protection and Enforcement Training Curriculum Standardization and Institutionalization” was organized by Global Tiger Forum (GTF) in partnerships with WWF-India, TRAFFIC-India and forest department of Assam on 11-12 December 2019 at Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM), Guwahati. The said workshop was attended by forest officials and directors/incharge/instructors of forest training schools from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Odhisa and West Bengal; officials and representatives from National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), AFPI, WCCB, Aaranyak, ASICA, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), GTF, WWF-India; WWF-Myanmar; WWF-Singapore, TRAFFIC-India.
The workshop was focused on:
- Aim and objectives of the workshop
- Importance of Institutionalizing protection and enforcement modules within the curriculum of training schools
- Overview of existing training curricula in different training schools of Eastern India
- Discussion on training modules of South African Wildlife College
- Discussion on training modules of NGOs like Aaranyak, WWF-India, TRAFFIC-India, WTI, and Panthera
- Overview of the training guidelines developed by the International Ranger Federation (IRF)
- Discussion on integrating Human Rights issues into forest and wildlife enforcement training
- Gap assessment of different training schools and discussions on the best practices available
The aim of the workshop was to collect information/views/comments from experts of the forest training colleges across Eastern states of India, senior forest officials, regional protection & conservation organizations, and other enforcement agencies in line with protection, wildlife crime, intelligence networking, wildlife forensics, the human-wildlife interface among others.
The gaps and findings of the workshop will help in drafting a supplementary curriculum that compliments the existing syllabus of the frontline staff.
