About Global Park Solutions
What we do
Global Park Solutions empowers national park managers and protected areas systems worldwide, fostering growth and resilience. We specialize in strategic planning, financial management, and policy research, partnering with governments, NGOs, and individual parks. With a footprint in over 65 countries, we navigate complex challenges using cutting-edge science and innovation. Our people-centered approach emphasizes collaboration as the key to tackling environmental crises head-on.
Planning for the Future
It all begins with envisioning the future. What ecosystem services do you envision your park or protected area providing? What kind of visitor experience do you aim to deliver? With a wealth of planning expertise spanning the globe, we're poised to guide your management team through a dynamic planning process or equip your staff with the skills through our training programs. We firmly believe that effective planning is the cornerstone of well-managed and efficient protected areas. Plans should not gather dust on a shelf; they should evolve as living documents, updated frequently. We empower your staff to take ownership of these plans, recognizing their leadership in their creation. While we can develop plans for you in some cases, we prioritize mentorship, ensuring your staff gains the sense of ownership and expertise necessary for success.
Finance and Business Planning for Protected Areas
The future is uncertain, especially amidst the current global financial crisis. National-level funding for parks and protected areas, as well as organizations, faces unprecedented challenges. Let us assess your current financial landscape and steer your team through crafting resilient business strategies and financial objectives.
Assessment and Monitoring
You need to take your organization, program or project to the next level of focus and efficiency. With a deep knowledge of industry-standard assessment and monitoring techniques and working knowledge of global standards for conservation including IUCN’s protected area management categories, governance categories, Red List of Threatened Species, Key Biodiversity Areas, transboundary conservation and UNESCO World Heritage criteria, we can help you on your way.
Training
Is your park navigating aimlessly, lacking clear goals and objectives aligned with economic realities? Elevate your park's management prowess with our specialized training on national park and protected area management planning, tailored for both terrestrial and marine environments. As park visitation surges worldwide, our strategic focus centers on visitor use management planning, leveraging the acclaimed Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework from the USA. Let's chart a course for success together.
Our Values
We're firm believers that societies thrive when rooted in their natural and cultural heritage. Our mission is to forge these vital connections for managers and organizations through strategic planning, innovative financing, and expert consultation. Moreover, we're staunch advocates for expanding and enhancing the global protected area network. We recognize that involving all sectors is pivotal for successful sustainability strategies. Let's join forces to shape a more sustainable future for all.
Informed by science.
We use an integrated approach using innovative biological and social science to find solutions to complex environmental issues.
Centered on people.
We firmly believe in the power of people as key players in solving environmental challenges. Embracing inclusivity, representation, and respect, we ensure that all voices are heard. Public consultation serves as the crucial initial phase in management planning, with active public involvement essential at every juncture to inform effective decision-making.
Striving for sustainability.
Sustainability is about meeting present needs without jeopardizing future generations' ability to meet theirs. Achieving this demands meticulous planning that navigates the delicate balance between conservation and development tradeoffs.
Who we are
Charles Besancon
Charles is the Director of Global Park Solutions. His 27 years of professional experience includes 10 years with the United Nations as the Head of the Protected Areas Programme at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and as the coordinator of the LifeWeb Initiative for the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity. He has lived in Cape Town South Africa, Cambridge England, Montreal Canada and in Montana in the USA where he currently resides. He has worked and travelled in 66 countries developing national park and protected area policy, training managers in innovative planning techniques, assessing UNESCO World Heritage sites, facilitating negotiations for transboundary conservation areas, developing large land and seascape projects and advising on protected area finance and business planning.
Charles is a member of the Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) Executive Committee and former Co-Chair of the IUCN WCPA Sustainable Finance Specialist Group. He is an Affiliate Faculty member in the University of Montana’s College of Forestry and Conservation where he occasionally teaches online graduate courses and serves on graduate committees. He also holds several board memberships including the Missoula Parks Board and Missoula Montana Open Space Advisory Committee. He is a long time member of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas. You can see his CV here.
Stephen McCool
Steve is Professor Emeritus, Wildland Recreation Management, in the Department of Society and Conservation of the College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana. Steve began his professional career by investigating biophysical impacts of wilderness use in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota during the mid 1960's and has continued working with wilderness and protected area managers his entire career, focusing principally on management of visitors and tourism, public engagement processes and new paradigms of planning. His current approach to protected area stewardship is based on the premise that planning and management occur within the context of messy situations--conflicting goals, uncertain cause-effect relationships. These settings require substantially different approaches--in process, focus, public participation and institutional design--compared to traditional tame problems. Thus, he focuses on "messy" issues associated with protected area planning, including the conflicts between recreation opportunities, integrated resource management, and application of frameworks to resolve competing demands. He has authored over 200 publications dealing with protected area management and provided advice and service to a number of park and protected area agencies in the U.S. and abroad including Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Belize, Brazil, Iceland, Croatia, China, New Zealand, Poland and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
He is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and currently serves on its Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group. You can see his CV here.
Taylor Mudford
Taylor has worked with national park and protected area managers in multiple capacities, first as a backcountry field technician and more recently as a visitor use management research assistant. During his graduate studies at the University of Montana, he was the lead author for technical reports for National Park Service managers at Glacier and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks. Additionally, he has conducted independent research on community-based deer management in Missoula, MT. You can see his CV here.
Lindsey Ellett
Lindsey Ellett is a graduate student at the University of Montana pursuing a M.S. degree in Resource Conservation with a focus on International Conservation and Development. Her master’s thesis aims to explore perceptions of transboundary marine protected area conservation in the Sulu-Sulawesi seascape, located between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. She has also had the opportunity to intern with Global Park Solutions and GOPA Worldwide Consultants, wherein she has contributed to work informing a European Commission project that aims to facilitate the creation of one or more marine protected areas in South East Asia.
She has been passionate about the ocean and conservation from a young age, inspired by time spent exploring the Oregon coast and traveling abroad. In 2017 she earned an Honors B.S. degree in Biology, with a focus on marine biology, from Oregon State University. Her undergraduate thesis work and post-graduation internships focused on whale and dolphin research and conservation; leading to field work experiences in the waters off of Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Australia. Through her graduate studies and beyond, she is interested in expanding her knowledge and experiences regarding transboundary conservation, diverse stakeholder collaboration, and marine mammal conservation. You can see her CV here.
