The NPS Sister Park Initiative & Guidelines

Overview & Background

It is widely accepted that most national parks are simply too small to fulfill their mission of preserving natural and cultural resources on their own. Park managers know that to fulfill their mandate, they cannot manage a protected area as an isolated island, but must seek opportunities to partner with neighboring land owners and the local community. National parks around the world are all ultimately linked together by a variety of natural and cultural phenomena. Migratory species such as birds, butterflies, sea turtles, whales and other marine life that breed in parks in North America and Europe migrate through and spend the winter in protected areas throughout Central and South America, Africa and Asia. Air pollution created in one country causes environmental damage to parks in other countries even thousands of miles away.

There is no formal procedure or program within NPS for establishing sister park arrangements with national parks of other countries. The NPS Office of International Affairs (OIA) has developed some informal guidelines to assist those NPS units that may be considering a sister park arrangement.

1. A sister park arrangement should be with a protected area having some kind of designation or recognition at the national level, i.e. it is not a park managed only by a provincial or local government or a private organization.

2. The normal basis for entering into a sister park arrangement should either be a similarity of protected resources/ecosystems, or a mutual interest in a common set of park management issues. Whatever the common interests, they should be substantial enough to sustain a sister park arrangement, and the resulting exchange activities, on an ongoing basis.

3. A sister park arrangement normally consists of exchanges of technical information and, if practicable, short-term personnel exchanges. Fax machines, E-mail and the Internet make electronic transfers of information very easy and relatively inexpensive. Personnel exchanges tend to be much more expensive, but may help to cultivate better staff-to-staff arrangements and familiarity with each park's resources and management challenges. How a sister park arrangement is pursued largely depends on the resources available to the two parks to support it.

4. The scope of the technical content in a sister park arrangement should be negotiated between the two parks.

5. A formal written bilateral agreement is not usually required to initiate a sister park arrangement. However, if a NPS unit decides to pursue a sister park arrangement, it is strongly recommended that the NPS unit formalize its proposal through a letter spelling out some proposed terms and conditions and technical scope so that there will be less chance of misunderstandings.

6. Concerning financing, the current NPS policy is that any commitment by a NPS unit to enter into a sister park arrangement means that the unit is also committing itself to covering its costs for that arrangement and its exchanges. Many NPS units have been very creative in leveraging external funds from friends groups or foundations to support their sister park arrangements.

7. The International Volunteer in Parks (IVIP) Program may be one way in which the NPS unit can bring staff from the sister park to the NPS unit for a training experience. For more information about the IVIP Program, contact Linda Bennett, the International Volunteer Coordinator at 202-354-1806.

8. In considering a sister park arrangement, a NPS unit should consider the degree to which language barriers may be an impediment to the exchange program. Does the NPS unit have enough staff fluent in the native language of the prospective sister park to sustain an ongoing flow of communication, or does the proposed sister park have staff who can communicate in English?

Parks interested in pursuing a Sister Park relationship may wish to pattern their agreement on this template.

Additional information can be found from the State Department on creating non-binding agreements.

To learn more about National Park Service units that have Sister Park relationships, click here.

Non-native invasive species wreak havoc on native flora and fauna. Diseases such as “Mad Cow Disease” are transported around the world in a matter of hours. Many U.S. national parks also preserve and interpret important aspects of the cultural heritage of the various peoples who settled the nation, such Mesa Verde, the Statue of Liberty and New Orleans Jazz.

Several NPS sites have established "sister park" relationships in the last few years with national parks in other countries. These partnerships increase information sharing and direct park-to-park contacts to address many of the common issues mentioned above, primarily through improved telecommunications technologies. While these relationships are driven by the parks themselves, the NPS Office of International Affairs provides advice, guidelines and a State Department-cleared template for establishing sister park relationships.