EnTraCoP – Enhancing the Teaching of Collaborative Planning in Natural Resource Management

EnTraCoP is a project coordinated by Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Renewable Natural Resources. The project was started on 1st October 2005 and it will finish on 30th September 2007. The project will get funding from Leonardo da Vinci programme.

EnTraCoP is for to improve the collaborative planning skills of natural resource and environmental planners. The tasks of the project are:

1. "Core skill analysis" of the planning profession will define the up-dated educational needs of the practising professionals;
2. assessment of the training will explore the contents of both degree oriented and post-graduate planning education and training in the field;
3. as a synthesis of these two "analyses" the development needs of education will be defined and a trainers' tool package on collaborative planning will be outlined and will be produced;
4. this tool package will then be tested in pilot courses; and finally the
5. results will be disseminated in seminars offered to trainers, researchers and professional planners.

There are fourteen partner organisations in six European countries consisting of six educational/development institutes, three national practitioner organisations in the field, two regional nature conservation organisations, two private consulting companies and a non-governmental environmental organisation.