Every protected area, at any given time, has something valuable to offer to others. We can take a snapshot of where each is at and learn fronn it. Lessons may be about a specific management activity. such as monitoring or zoning, or about an encompassing approach such as co-management. This booklet presents four such snapshots, which will be described and analyzed in some depth in the pages that follow. The four sites selected below were chosen by the WCPA Project Steering Committee to illustrate c four particular themes of management practice but there are certainly others that would be equally valid.
The reports on the four sites are presented below as case studies, wherever possible attempting to show their re\evance to the wider European context. But of course, every protected area has to define its own practices that are adapted to the local context. Management practices have to adapt to changing times and circumstances ("adaptive management"). Most protected areas managers will be familiar with the phrase "Learn by doing" and will prefer to develop their management approaches by practical experience rather than reading books and pamphlets. Nevertheless there is value in documenting the experience of protected areas that could be considered seminal on certain topics as a stimulus to debate and thought.
The broad lesson is that there is only one overall recommendation: take on an adaptive management attitude, be responsive and flexible, and learn by doing.