PARALEGAL TRAINING MANUAL FOR PROTECTED AREAS

Essentials of Protected Area Management in the Philippines (2000)

Volume 12
by Ted T. Bonpin, Rodolfo Fernando N. Quicho, Armand H. Mejia, Maria Generosa T. Mislang, Manuel E. Narvadez Jr., and Ava Sharon P. Batay-an

ISBN: 971-8986-37-5

With the scarcity of law enforcers and lawyers in most protected areas of the Philippines, it is crucial that park rangers and community members be equipped with basic knowledge about the legal system particularly on environment and natural resources laws.

This manual was designed to help community-based paralegals train new community-based law enforcers in protecting the biodiversity of protected areas. It also suggests methods of imparting information and skills to paralegals, but the user or trainer must have training skills particularly on popular education techniques.

The manual contains nine modules or topics which have been grouped under three parts:  (1) Paralegal Philosophy and Metalegal Strategies which is considered inseparable from the whole paralegal training, discusses why paralegals should be directly and actively involved in protection work and presents arguments from which one can view the legal system and the delivery of legal services from a developmental perspective; (2) Legal Information and Knowledge , explains provisions of specific environmental and natural resources statutes that are relevant to law enforcers in protected areas, and (3)  Law Enforcement and Prosecution which enables paralegals to actually enforce the laws they learned in the second part of the training; it also explains relevant provisions of laws and regulations as well as techniques on things that are being actually done.