There are more and more protected areas throughout the world, but very few training courses dealing primarily with managing these. Modern protected area management comprises a variety of tasks and areas of activity. For this reason a comprehensive concept for a course of this kind was compiled under the auspices of E.C.O. The international Master’s course “Management of Protected Areas” at the Alps-Adriatic University in Klagenfurt has thus been in existence since 2005 and attracts students from all over the world. The Master’s course was offered for the first time from 2005 to 2007, and students from Austria, Malta, Latvia, Nepal, Romania, Armenia and Switzerland took part in the course. E.C.O. is mainly responsible for the course content and the organisational processing, and is the main contact for students.