Protected Areas

Effectively incorporating small reserves into national systems of protected and conserved areas

This paper provides evidence that carefully designed support networks of smaller protected areas can be an important complement to activities to reach the Global Biodiversity Framework's target of 30% of the planet in protected and conserved areas by 2030. The paper identifies seven benefits from small reserves, when correctly located and well-managed and proposes a typology based on these benefits that can guide steps for policy makers to help planning and monitoring small reserves in area-based conservation efforts. Using these principles, small reserves can play an important role in area-based conservation efforts.

Link: www.mdpi.com

Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Finland's Protected Areas 2023

In 2004, Finland was the first country in the world to commission an independent review of the management effectiveness of the whole government-managed protected area system. Almost twenty years later, an international team worked with Metsahallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland (PWF) to repeat the process; an assessment of the state-owned protected area system managed by PWF. The evaluation was part of a two-year reflection about adapting protected area management to changes in funding, creating a lean and agile organisation based around value streams, and working with a focus on customer-based management. The PAME report provides a roadmap for PWF to further enhance management and to meet ambitious conservation goals of the future.

Link: julkaisut.metsa.fi

What Does the Global Biodiversity Framework Mean for Protected and Conserved Areas?

A chapter in the e-book Managing Protected Areas People and Places
edited by Niall Finneran, Denise Hewlett and Richard Clarke. This essay takes a critical and insightful view on the current progress of the CBD's Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its ambitious attempts to meet the 30x30 target of conserving at least 30 per cent of land, inland water and marine ecosystems in protected and conserved areas by 2030. The essay highlights the complex and nuanced political contortions of the development of the GBF and its implications for nature conservation.

Link: springer.com

Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing and Degazettement (PADDD) in the UK

We know that British protected areas are legally being downgraded, downsized and sometimes degazetted altogether, but without central collection of information, we have very little idea how many sites are involved, and how often this occurs. As the UK attempts to fulfil its obligations under the Global Biodiversity Framework, this lack of information is worrying. This paper argues that a national PADDD database is needed, probably managed by Joint Nature Conservation Committee but with input from all the statutory and major voluntary bodies. Most of the information is already available, but currently hidden and lack of publicity will encourage local and national governments to assume that changes will go unnoticed.

Link: www.ecos.org.uk

The state of Ukraine's protected areas: an interim update on damages from the full-scale invasion

The Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has become a humanitarian and political crisis. Since the start of the invasion, it has also been an ecological disaster, with Russian troops utilising protected areas both in an attempt to access strategic Ukrainian settlements, but also as locations in which to conduct active warfare. The frontline has now crossed and retreated from many protected areas, many are still occupied and many are still the sites of active hostilities. This study found the most common damages to protected areas are: physical destruction of habitats and wildlife and wildlife behavioural changes from explosions; chemical and physical pollution from explosive materials; fires caused by shelling; damages to soil and plant cover from heavy military vehicles, equipment and defence infrastructure; and military exploitation of natural resources. Given the occupation, combat and mining with explosives, it will be years before Ukraine can account for the full ex

Link: parksjournal.com

Priorities for protected area expansion so nations can meet their Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework commitments

This paper provides a review on the type of areas that nations need to prioritise when implementing Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It show that data is available for 12 distinct biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service elements that can be mapped and, if conserved, will (with appropriate management) help meet the broad intention of Target 3. The paper highlights examples of the planning methods available that can be utilized so these areas can be targeted for protection and discusses issues related to trade-offs regarding how to prioritise amongst them as well as to operationalise some of the vaguer concepts like representation and ecosystem functions and services so that they achieve the best outcomes for biodiversity.

Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

CA|RDS Lite: A rapid assessment of site management against the Conservation Assured | River Dolphin Standards

This paper introduces the inaugural rapid evaluation of river dolphin habitats, coinciding with managed sites in Asia and South America. Covering all six river dolphin species (including the sole freshwater porpoise worldwide), each is classified as Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The abbreviated Conservation Assured | River Dolphin Standards (CA|RDS) version, termed CA|RDS Lite, involved a questionnaire-based survey conducted by managers and stakeholders at 40 sites across 10 of the 14 countries within the river dolphin range. The CA|RDS Lite offers a quick overview of site management efficacy, pinpointing crucial management requirements and urgent river dolphin sites necessitating intervention. It also sets the stage for the complete application of CA|RDS standards and their use as an accreditation and management instrument.

Link: parksjournal.com/

Essential planetary health workers: Positioning rangers within global policy

This paper outlines the need for global leaders across multiple sectors, to recognise the profession of rangers as essential planetary health workers and to position rangers more effectively within global conservation and environmental policy mechanisms. It introduces the challenges facing rangers, the emerging diversity of roles within the ranger profession and the important contribution of rangers to conservation and sustainable development. It presents policy and implementation avenues to improve recognition and professionalisation of rangers as key executors of conservation and development policy, particularly considering the recent Global Biodiversity Framework ambitions.

Link: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/

30x30. A Guide to Inclusive, Equitable and Effective Implementation of Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

This guide is about how to plan and implement the new global target for effectively and equitably conserving at least 30% of the Earth by 2030. The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022, includes Target 3, the '30x30' target. Each element of this multi-faceted target is explained in the guide along with guidance on planning for implementation, some overarching concepts which should guide implementation, resources for multi-stakeholder / multi-rightsholder approaches, reviews of key resources and some thoughts on how monitoring implementation can be developed.

Link: www.worldwildlife.org

Safe havens for river dolphins

This report summarises the results from the first ever assessment of the management of river dolphin sites across Asia and South America. All six river dolphin species are classified as endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN red list of threatened species. River dolphins are important indicators of the health of the rivers they inhabit; rivers that are also the lifeblood of huge economies and hundreds of millions of people. The assessment found that the challenges faced by river dolphins are diverse and serious, and it is important that the management of these sites is resilient to these challenges. A lack of management capacity within the site is a major issue for most of the site managers involved in the assessment. The development of the CA|RDS standards (see below, 2022) provides an excellent opportunity for site managers to plan and target improvements that will provide significant opportunities for improving the conservation status for each of the river dolphin populatio

Link: www.riverdolphins.org

Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Strategy: What does 30x30 look like in practice?

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed a new Global Biodiversity Framework in December 2022. Target 3 includes a commitment to designate 30% of the world in protected and conserved areas by 2030, one of the most ambitious conservation promises in history. This Equilibrium Briefing outlines some of the implications.

Link:   Download PDF

Best Practice in Delivering the GBF 30x30 Target

Draft target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), known colloquially as '30x30', calls for protecting 30% of the world's terrestrial and marine habitats by 2030. But how will the world achieve these ambitious, critically needed goals in a way that is cost-effective and equitable? Business as usual will not be enough. IUCN WCPA was a partner in a major report produced by TNC and commissioned by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), to facilitate the conversation and present some good practices which governments and partners around the world can draw upon.

Link: www.nature.org/

Nature-based Solutions and protected and conserved areas: An introduction for protected and conserved area practitioners

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are increasingly seen as a response to many societal challenges. It is becoming increasingly obvious that protected and conserved areas (PCAs) are a major vehicle for NbS and essential to their success in many situations. This publication, developed IUCN, the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), argues that with appropriate and implemented safeguarding policies, together NbS and PCAs are some of the best routes we have for providing a decent future for people and the planet by combining many important elements of sustainable development.

Link: portals.iucn.org/

Essential planetary health workers: positioning rangers within global policy

Developed for the Ranger Roundtable initiative, a partnership project between the International Ranger Federation, The Thin Green Line Foundation and Universal Ranger Support Alliance with supporting partners, this policy document has two aims: 1) to advocate for the professionalisation of rangers and 2) to ensure better recognition of the role of rangers in sustainable development. To achieve this, the policy paper calls on global leaders across multiple sectors, to recognise the profession of rangers as essential planetary health workers and to position rangers more effectively within global conservation and environmental policy mechanisms.

Link: www.ursa4rangers.org

Developing an outcomes-based approach to achieving target 3 of the global biodiversity framework

The draft GBF and target 3 specifically could fail if governments recognise areas that do not achieve successful outcomes or respect human rights and fail to recognise other effective governance systems. In this paper Equilibrium worked with multiple authors to argue that protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) should only be recognised as fully contributing to 30x30 if they are on track to achieve positive and sustained biodiversity outcomes while respecting human rights. It argues for four levels in which progress towards Target 3 can be distinguished: 1. Areas that are currently fully effective; 2. Areas that are currently partially effective or on track to being effective; 3. Areas that are currently ineffective due to reversible issues; and 4. Areas that are currently and will continue to be ineffective due to irreversible issues.

Link: parksjournal.com/

Well-being: Conserving our sea of islands

The Conserving our sea of islands report provides the first comprehensive assessment of area-based conservation in Oceania. The 23 countries and territories that it covers are diverse but share a common identity and geography, as well as many other features such as extensive customary ownership. Equilibrium contributed the chapter on well-being examining the available research and evidence on the benefits provided by protected and conserved areas to local communities in the region, and highlighting the significant gap in published material around these issues.

Link: portals.iucn.org

Conservation Assured River Dolphins Standards: CA|RDS

Conservation Assured provides a platform for achieving excellence in site-based conservation. The latest Conservation Assured standards are for river dolphins: Conservation Assured River Dolphins Standards: CA|RDS. Developed by an expert-led consortium, CA|RDS demonstrates, guides, promotes and incentivises good site-based management practices to secure a network of well-managed freshwater protected and conserved areas for river dolphins.

Link: www.riverdolphins.org

Building Trust with Rangers and Communities: Volume 1: Scoping Report and Initial Findings

Protected areas are supposed to do all sorts of things, conserve biodiversity, provide and protect social and cultural benefits, mitigate climate change, and much more. Rules, regulations and restrictions designed to protect nature and ecosystems have, in some instances, had serious adverse impacts on people's human rights. Rangers, increasingly from those very communities, and others working directly in protected areas see and experience the impacts and consequences of these policy failures on Indigenous peoples and local communities close up. This scoping project and report (volume 1), the start we hope of a bigger project, has developed simple, practical guidance for rangers and their managers working all over the world to strengthen ranger and community relationships drawing on actual experience worldwide.

Link: www.ursa4rangers.org

Building Trust with Rangers and Communities: Scoping report for URSA. Volume 2: Case Studies

The second volume of the 'Building Trust with Rangers and Communities' scoping document. The first volume (see above) includes an introduction to the project and an initial framework and set of good practices for helping build trust between rangers, Indigenous peoples and local communities. This second volume includes a combination of full case studies developed from projects worldwide and shorter stories, usually from individuals actively involved in initiatives to build trust between rangers and communities.

Link: www.ursa4rangers.org

Best Practice in Delivering the 30x30 Target Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures

A report for the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), in association with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), on the implementation of the proposed global target for 30% of the world's lands and oceans to be in protected and conserved areas by 2030. The paper assembles initial evidence and proposes strategies for implementation and will be developed into a larger manual and resource kit for governments and others as the CBD post-2020 process develops.

Link: www.nature.org

The CA|TS Report 2022: 10 years of Conservation Assured Tiger Standards

Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) started with a simple aim - to contribute to the many efforts around the world to secure wild tigers. This report tells the story of the CA|TS journey from an idea to a global partnership of countries, sites, experts and conservation organisations implementing this mission across the tiger range. There are now 128 tiger conservation sites from seven countries registered with CA|TS, covering about 75% of the global tiger population. 21 sites have been CA|TS Approved, which signifies they have reached the globally agreed standards of management for wild tigers, or are in the final stages of approval.

Link: tigers.panda.org/

METT Handbook. A Guide to using the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT)

First published in 2002, the METT has been applied in 127 countries worldwide. In 2020, a new version of the METT (the fourth version, METT-4) was developed. For the first time, METT-4 is presented as an Excel tool which aids implementation and compilation of results. To accompany this new version we have produced a new edition of the METT Handbook; which provides background on management effectiveness, advice on best use of the METT, case studies and links to the improving the quality of METT assessments using SMART and complementing management effectiveness assessments using the site-level assessment of governance and equity (SAGE) tool.

Link: pp-files

Short Communication: Recommendations for standardising reporting of site-based economic benefits from protected and conserved areas

This short communication provides a background discussion to the issue of assessing direct economic gains linked to biodiversity and makes recommendations relating to eight reporting procedures which could help provide clarity on the amount and distribution of site-based economic benefits. These could also aid attempts to compare, aggregate or help further understand the importance of these benefits from conservation initiatives.

Link: parksjournal.com

Privately Protected Areas: Missing Pieces of the Global Conservation Puzzle

Although extensive information is available on the location of protected areas governed by governments, data on privately protected areas remain elusive at the global level. As the world's governments prepare to adopt a new post-2020 global biodiversity framework to guide conservation over the next decade, this paper argues that, without complete data on privately protected areas, they do so without a vital piece of the puzzle.

Link: frontiersin.org/articles/

Using REDD+ Funds to Support Protected and Conserved Areas in Lion Landscapes

The lion range already contributes 11% of Africa's carbon storage and capture from just 6.7% of the continent's area. There is a potential for a much larger contribution if management were sustainable. REDD+ offers a way of bringing vital funds to support protected and conserved areas and there are already successful schemes in operation with experience to share. But it's not always a straightforward process. This leaflet tells you what is and isn't possible and outlines the steps to take.

Link:   Download PDF

Making Money Local: Can Protected Areas Deliver Both Economic Benefits and Conservation Objectives?

This study, part of the CBD's technical series, highlights 36 case studies from individual conservation areas around the world with a focus on direct economic gain from a wide range of benefits which do not undermine the area's conservation objective. An overview essay complements the case studies reviewing the successes, and failures, of linking tangible benefits with conservation practice.

Link: www.cbd.int

Protected Planet Report 2020

Equilibrium provided two small contributions to the 2020 Protected Planet report. Box 8 on areas of importance for ecosystem services: an overlooked element of Aichi Target 11 and Box 9 on tracking management effectiveness of conservation areas after 2020.

Link: livereport.protectedplanet.net/

Impacts of Covid-19 on Protected And Conserved Areas: A Global Overview and Regional Perspectives

Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) throughout the world face huge challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper in a special issue of PARKS gives a global overview of impacts and responses. Protected area agencies, NGOs and research groups, together with the communities that support the management of PCAs, have conducted online studies to understand the overall impacts of COVID-19 containment measures on PCAs at regional and global levels. The paper summarises results from ten surveys, eight regional and two global, from 90 countries representing all continents except Antarctica. It draws lessons from different regions and contexts, and synthesises information on impacts and responses, particularly with regard to conservation and management activities, visitor services, revenue, stakeholder engagement, capacity, threats, illegal activities and neighbouring communities.

Link: parksjournal.com

Essential indicators for measuring site‐based conservation effectiveness in the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework

This paper draws on experiences from the assessment of protected area effectiveness in the CBD's previous strategic plan to provide recommendations on the essential elements related to biodiversity outcomes and management that need to be captured in future indicators as well as how this could be done. The proposed protected area effectiveness indicators include a combination of remotely derived products for all protected areas, combined with data from monitoring of both protected area management and trends in species and ecosystems based on field observations. Additionally, the paper highlights the need for creating a digital infrastructure to operationalize national‐level data‐capture. We believe these steps are critical and urge the adoption of suitable protected area effectiveness indicators before the post‐2020 framework is agreed in 2021.

Link: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Protected Area Benefits Assessment Tool Plus (PA-BAT+)

A users' guide to the Protected Area Benefits Assessment Tool Plus (PA-BAT+) which helps identify ecosystem services from protected areas, in collaboration with local communities and Indigenous People. The publication draws on over a decade of practical experience in applying the tool in a participatory process amongst a wide range of rights-holders and stakeholders. The tool looks at legal resource use in ways that do not undermine conservation, and which can provide subsistence/non-economic and economic benefits. The publication provides a quick overview of why understanding the benefits from protected areas is important, and a detailed guide to using the PA-BAT+, then explains how to understand and use the results. Seven case studies outline different uses and adaptations of the tool in Croatia, Colombia, Turkey, Myanmar, USA and Ethiopia, as well as describing the use of the tool across natural World Heritage sites.

Link: portals.iucn.org/

Editorial Essay: COVID-19 and protected and conserved areas

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a dramatic impact on the global community; on people's lives and health, livelihoods, economies, and behaviours. Most zoonotic disease pandemics, including COVID-19, arise from the unsustainable exploitation of nature. This special editorial provides a snapshot of how protected and conserved areas around the world are being impacted by COVID-19. For many protected and conserved areas, negative impacts on management capacity, budgets and effectiveness are significant, as are impacts on the livelihoods of communities living in and around these areas. We provide a commentary on how effectively and equitably managed systems of protected and conserved areas can be part of a response to the pandemic that both lessens the chance of a recurrence of similar events and builds a more sustainable future for people and nature. We conclude the editorial with a Call for Action for the rescue, recovery, rebuilding and expansion of the global network of protected and con

Link: parksjournal.com/

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030): What can protected areas contribute?

The forthcoming UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration will stress the importance of ecosystem conservation whilst addressing the need to reverse ongoing losses to biodiversity and ecosystem services that have serious impacts on human livelihoods. This paper suggests six ways in which area-based conservation (protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures) could play a key role in the decade.

Link: parksjournal.com/

Strengthening the global system of protected areas post-2020: A perspective from the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas

A paper outlining IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas perspective on priorities for supporting effective protected and conserved areas for the post-2020 era.

Link: escholarship.org

Protected Natural Areas of the Russian Federation and their Categories

This publication is the result of a review of the IUCN protected area definition and management categories against the Russian natural resource legislation and laws of the regions of the Russian Federation which together provide for a wide variety of forms of area-based regulation of natural resource management. It is part of a series of assessments of Russia's objective contribution to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Link: wwf.ru/en/resources/

Guidelines for applying the IUCN protected area management categories to marine protected areas, 2nd edition

These supplementary marine guidelines are aimed at ensuring that the IUCN categories can be effectively applied to all types of marine protected areas (MPAs) as well as to any marine components of adjoining terrestrial protected areas, provided a site meets the IUCN definition of a protected area. The development of this second edition of these guidelines was in part a response to evidence of the widespread incorrect application of the categories to MPAs.

Link: iucn.org

Guidelines for privately protected areas

The first global guide to management of privately protected areas, containing a detailed set of best practice guidelines and many case studies and examples; one of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Best Practice series.

Link: www.iucn.org/

Towards future-oriented conservation: Managing protected areas in an era of climate change

A summary of three year’s collaboration between the Luc Hoffmann Institute, WWF Colombia, CSIRO, Australian National University and Equilibrium to develop a methodology for climate adaptation in protected areas, working with park managers and local communities to identify ecosystem services at risk and then develop strategies to boost resilience of these services.

Link: link.springer.com/

2018 United Nations List of Protected Areas

Sue contributed to the 2018 edition of the United Nations List of Protected Areas focuses on protected area management effectiveness.

Link: UN_List_2018

Building Stakeholder Awareness and Engagement Strategy to Enhance Biosphere Reserve Performance and Sustainability: The Case of Kien Giang, Vietnam

This paper looks at the application of the biosphere reserve concept in Kien Giang, Vietnam to see how it compared with other biosphere reserves both in Vietnam and internationally. The paper concludes that without proper investment in public awareness and improvement of Biosphere Reserve governance leadership, the desire for development of strategic public–private partnerships to support implementation remains unfulfilled and the Biosphere Reserve model will, as a consequence, contribute little to the long-term biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development in the region.

Link: link.springer.com/

Setting and Implementing Standards for Management of Wild Tigers

Tiger numbers have collapsed so dramatically that conservationists are adopting a strategy of securing populations in priority conservation landscapes.The Conservation Assured|Tiger Standards (CA|TS) are designed to help ensure effectiveness and provide a benchmark against which to measure progress. CA|TS is a distillation of best practice and a roadmap to management effectiveness, linking management to expert-driven standards covering all aspects of management. Equilibrium Research helped develop the concept, standards and systems for CA|TS. This paper outlines the CA|TS development, process and experiences over the first few years of implementation.

Link: www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/7/3/93

Priorities for Protected Area Research

A paper drawn from a  a survey of 50 conservation professionals - half researchers and half practitioners - who identified one hundred research priorities of critical importance to protected area management. Contributors were selected to represent a range of disciplines, every continent except Antarctica and roughly equal numbers of men and women. The paper includes details of the resultsanalysed thematically and grouped as potential research topics by both practitioners and researchers. Priority research gaps reveal a high interest to demonstrate the role of protected areas within a broader discussion about sustainable futures and if and how protected areas can address a range of conservation and socio-economic challenges effectively. The paper lists the hundred priorities structured under broad headings of management, ecology, governance and social (including political and economic issues) and helps contribute to setting future research agendas.

Link: parksjournal.com/

Safe Havens for Wild Tigers: A rapid assessment of management effectiveness against the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards

This report summarizes a rapid self-assessment of the status of tiger conservation areas against key elements of the Conservation Assured Tiger Standards (CA|TS) Criteria. The report includes data from of 112 tiger conservation areas, where an estimated 70% of the world’s wild tigers live, and is the first and largest rapid assessment of site-based tiger conservation across Asia.

Link: tigers.panda.org/

Assessing the effectiveness of a protected area network: a case study of Bhutan

During 2014–2016 the Royal Government of Bhutan developed a custom-made tool for assessing management effectiveness: the Bhutan Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool Plus (Bhutan METT +). This was implemented in Bhutan's 10 protected areas and one botanical park, and the results were verified through field trips and expert reviews. This paper provides an overview of the process of development and results of the study.

Link: www.cambridge.org/

CA|TS Business Plan

Equilibrium Research have been partners in the Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) since its inception in 2013.The business plan outlines the actions required for the successful implementation of the CA|TS from 2018-2022.

Link: www.conservationassured.org/

Protected areas: challenges and responses for the coming decade

The global protected area network has undergone an unprecedented rate of expansion over the last few decades; one of the largest and fastest changes of land-use in history. Although it is difficult to link cause and effect very precisely, international commitments have been influential in driving the increase in the global protected area estate, particular the so-called Aichi Biodiversity Target 11. In two years the targets will be renegotiated. It is important that those concerned with the future of biodiversity and protected areas start to think now about what is needed, what challenges and opportunities exist, and to identify priorities for actions by protected area managers, policy makers and supporters in the next few years. This first in a new series of Equilibrium Research Dialogues identifies 10 critical issues, listed below, and their associated challenges facing protected areas, along with some s

Link:   Download PDF

Restoration in Myanmar’s Protected Areas: Workshop report on a training course for protected area staff

A summary of the results from a five-day workshop on capacity building training of habitat restoration planning for all protected areas in Myanmar held in the Alaungdaw Katthapa National Park Head Office, Sagaing Region, Myanmar from 13th to 17th November, 2017.

Link: www.iucn.org/

Global Land Outlook: Working Paper. Protected areas

A working paper for the Global Land Outlook Report, this paper stresses that protected areas are critical tools in maintaining biodiversity and, if well managed, are proven to be effective for both conservation and maintaining the ecosystem services on which human livelihoods and welfare depend. The modern protected area system was developed largely during the latter part of the twentieth and in the twenty-first century, and can be maintained under a range of management and governance types.

Link: https://static1.squarespace.com/

Half-Bhutan: The Evolution and Effectiveness of Protected Areas in a Country Recognizing Nature Needs Half

A short overview of an assessment of management effectiveness carried out for all the protected areas in the Kingdom of Bhutan between 2014 and 2016.

Link:   Download PDF

PARKS 23.1

The final issue of PARKS under Equilibrium's editorship. The issue contains the usual diversity of papers including one authored by Kasandra-Zorica Ivanić, Andrea Štefan, Deni Porej and Sue Stolton on the implementation of the participatory assessment of ecosystem services in the Dinaric Arc of Europe to support protected area management.

Link: parksjournal.com

Defining marine protected areas: A response to Horta e Costa et al.

A response to a paper by Horta e Costa et al. (Marine Policy 72 (2), 2016) suggesting a new way of defining marine protected areas based around an analysis of uses (primarily fishing, but also aquaculture, boating and anchoring). This paper argues the importance of having a global protected area classification system that includes both marine and terrestrial (many protected areas contain both); the challenge of generating accurate data, which would be increased by the proposals, and the multiple objectives of protected areas beyond those considered in the classification system. Furthermore, the paper notes that the current system was determined after a lengthy consultation process, involving hundreds of professionals around the world, and should not therefore be casually abandoned.

Link: www.sciencedirect.com

Bhutan State of Parks 2016

This report provides, for the very first time an overview of the status and effectiveness of protected areas in Bhutan, based on the development and implementation of a tool for assessing the management effectiveness of the protected area network – the Bhutan Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool Plus (Bhutan METT +) May 2016. The overall results from implementing the Bhutan METT + show that protected areas in Bhutan are well managed. However, when the results are broken down into the six elements of management effectiveness suggested by IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas, the assessment shows their effectiveness is limited by a low level of resources (both financial and appropriate technical resources) and by gaps in the monitoring and research data, which limits the ability to understand the impact of conservation, react to changing conditions and undertake adaptive management to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Link: www.moaf.gov.bt/

Defining marine protected areas: A response to Horta e Costa et al.

A response to the paper by Horta e Costa et al. (Marine Policy 72 (2), 2016) which suggest a new way of defining marine protected areas based around an analysis of uses (primarily fishing, but also aquaculture, boating and anchoring). We believe there are strong arguments to stay with the existing IUCN classification system and outline these in this response.

Link: www.sciencedirect.com/

Factors influencing successful implementation of Biosphere Reserves in Vietnam: Challenges, opportunities and lessons learnt

The results of an analysis of legal documents and an online survey with 41 managers and staff members of the Biosphere Reserve Management Boards and National Man and the Biosphere Committee in Vietnam on the way biosphere reserve principles are applied. The paper finds that although the reserves conform to the Biosphere Reserve conceptual model, the operation and management effectiveness of sites is hindered by the predominant practice of sectoral and top-down control that is at odds with the intent of biosphere reserve management. The relatively weak legal status of biosphere reserves within the national framework is counter balanced by their more direct management by, and support from the autonomous provincial and city authorities.Future sustainability and effectiveness of the biosphere reserves will depend on the implementation of appropriate, locally-based management solutions.

Link: www.sciencedirect.com

PARKS 22.2

This latest issues of PARKS includes papers related to protected area governance, best practices in protected area site management, the results of a 40-country survey on ranger insurance schemes and an editorial on how IUCN and WCPA are delivering the Promise of Sydney, the ambitious action plan from the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014..

Link: parksjournal.com

Evidence for Biodiversity Conservation in Protected Landscapes

This paper reviews the available evidence for the effectiveness of IUCN management category V (protected landscapes and seascapes) in protecting wild biodiversity by drawing on published information and a set of case studies.

Link: www.mdpi.com

METT Handbook: A guide to using the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT)

It is now fifteen years since the first edition of the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) was published.The METT has since become the commonest protected area management effectiveness tool, used in over 2,500 protected areas covering over 4.2 million square kilometres in at least127 countries.Experience has shown however that many users do not apply the METT as effectively as possible. This handbook aims to improve the efficacy with which the METT is applied. It includes detailed additional guidance on the application of the METT and best practices for developing, implementing and using the results of the METT.

Link: www.protectedplanet.net/

Climate Adaptation Methodology for Protected Areas (CAMPA)

The Climate Adaptation Methodology for Protected Areas (CAMPA) combines ecosystem and community-based approaches to adaptation and uses a participatory approach that aims to build consensus amongst stakeholders on the actions necessary to address the current and potential impacts of climate change. This manual, the result of several years work, describes the methodology in detail and includes summarise of lessons learned in three case studies from its field-testing in six coastal and marine protected areas in Colombia, Madagascar and the Philippines.

Link: wwf.panda.org/

Achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 to improve the performance of protected areas and conserve freshwater biodiversity

Reports on implementation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets often fail to consider explicitly freshwater ecosystem processes and habitats, the pressures upon them, and therefore the full range of requirements and actions needed to sustain them. This paper therefore provides an overview of the current progress and key gaps for meeting Aichi Target 11 for freshwater biodiversity.

Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

PARKS 22.1

Issue 22.1 of IUCN WCPA’s peer review journal PARKS contains a diverse set of papers from around the world (the Amazon, Iceland, Japan, Australia, Costa Rica and Luxembourg). Subject areas include overviews of the protected area system in Iceland and Luxembourg, and a discussion of how Christian monastic lands contribute to conservation. Management focused papers include an approach to landscape conservation planning, a review of nature-based tourism, community benefits assessments and the assessment of good governance. The editorial features a major initiative from the Amazon region to show the role of protected areas as natural solutions to climate change.

Link: parksjournal.com/

Protected Area Diversity and Potential for Improvement (chapter in: Protected Areas: Are They Safeguarding Biodiversity?)

An overview of ways to increase the potential of protected areas. This chapter describes the full variety of protected area options; provides examples of how countries are using different approaches to build and maintain their protected area systems and identifies some gaps in our knowledge and necessary next steps.

Link: eu.wiley.com/

PARKS 21.2

This issue of IUCN WCPA’s peer review journal PARKS includes papers from Africa (Ghana/Zambia), North America and South America (Paraguay), Asia (India/Nepal) and Australia. Papers cover a diverse range of topics including Indigenous protected areas, buffer zone and local community management, tourism, reptilian conservation and the urgent need to connect people to nature.

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-22-2/

Bolder science needed now for protected areas

A new multi-authored paper identifying what the conservation science community can do to help ensure protected areas remain relevant and the achievement of the goal set out in the Convention on Biological Diversity's Target 11 is not simply an end in itself, but generates genuine benefits for biodiversity.

Link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Natural Solutions: Protected areas are vital for human health and well-being

The latest briefing from the IUCN WCPA Natural Solutions Specialist Group (of which Nigel is chair) outlines the role that protected areas can play in securing a range of ecosystem services beneficial to human health. The briefing outlines the main areas of benefit and explains the advantages of protected areas in comparison to other natural areas.

Link: www.iucn.org/

Protected Area Governance and Management (chapter 6)

Protected Area Governance and Management synthesizes current knowledge and cutting-edge thinking from the diverse branches of practice and learning relevant to protected area governance and management. Chapter 6 provides an overview of all the values and benefits of protected areas and then provides an introduction on how to understand and manage these benefits.

Link: press.anu.edu.au/

Private governance of protected areas in Africa:Case studies, lessons learnt and conditions of success

With the support of the French Agency for Development (AfD), IUCN's African Protected Areas & Conservation (Papaco) is conducting a series of studies on governance of protected areas in Africa. Our contribution is a study on private protected areas.

Link: papaco.org/

PARKS 21.1

One of the legacies of the 2014 World Parks Congress will be the publication of papers in PARKS. Many sessions at the congress reported on new research or lessons learned and best practices in protected area management. Issue 21.1, the first since the congress, includes papers on the Sydney Parklands from Stream 3 and on lessons learned in Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) from Kenya and Latin America in Stream 1. Other papers report on using oblique aerial photography for monitoring protected areas in Madagscar; papers on the Zhangye National Wetland Park in China, Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area in Australia and finally a paper on freshwater management in Uttarakhand, India.

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-21-1-5/

Protected Areas as Tools for Disaster Risk Reduction: A handbook for practitioners

First in a planned series of short handbooks describing how protected areas can be used as tools for a variety of ecosystem and cultural services. The current volume looks at ways in which protected areas can help in disaster risk reduction (DRR), buffering communities against a range of natural hazards, including storms, floods, sea-level rise, tsunamis, drought and landslides. The manual provides a series of tools to help practitioners identify benefits and factor them into protected area planning and DRR strategies.

Link: portals.iucn.org/

An assessment of the role of protected landscapes in conserving biodiversity in Europe

The chapter summarises evidence on the role of IUCN category V protected areas (“protected landscapes”) in biodiversity conservation, reviewing published evidence to date and including case studies from Croatia, German and Spain.

Link: link.springer.com/

The performance and potential of protected areas

The authors wrote a commissioned insight piece for the journal Nature, outlining the status of protected areas worldwide; the changing political climate in which they exist; their wide and frequently undervalued ecosystem, social and cultural benefits; and widespread government retreat from supporting protected areas: the paper finished with a marked increase in global support for these vital conservation tools. Written as a contribution to debates at the World Parks Congress, the paper has already been downloaded more than 20,000 times.

Link: www.nature.com/nature/journal/

The Futures of Privately Protected Areas

Equilibrium worked with Kent Redford, the World Commission on Protected Areas Specialist Group on Private Protected Areas and a collection of experts from around the world to produce a technical report on the role, definition, significance and futures of protected areas managed by individuals, NGOs, companies, religious bodies and research institutes. The report includes 17 case studies from countries around the world, plus the outputs from an experts’ meeting held in Bristol UK, in late 2013.

Link: www.iucn.org/

Putting Nature on the Map

The aim of the Putting Nature on the Map project (PNOTM) was to use the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories to identify all the places in the UK that meet the IUCN definition of a protected area; and then to assign to them one of the six IUCN protected area management categories and four protected area governance types. The project had two significant impacts: it standardised and enriched the way in which different management approaches to protected areas were perceived in the UK and it brought several thousand privately protected areas, managed by NGOs, more fully into the national system. The report, which is also available in summary form, describes the process and results.

Link: www.iucn-uk.org/

WWF Protected Areas Assessment in the Dinaric Arc

Equilibrium has been working with WWF in the Dinaric Arc (former Yugoslavia and Albania) on a survey of the various benefits from over 50 national parks, using the Protected Area Benefits Assessment Tool (PA-BAT) that we developed some years ago. This leaflet, produced for the 2014 World Parks Congress, offers preliminary results; a full report and accompanying papers will be prepared in 2015.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/

PARKS 20.2

A bumper issue released at the 2014 World Parks Congress. This issues includes an article on the future of protected areas in the USA (Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the National Parks) with responses from protected area agency directors from around the world plus policy papers on the interpretation of the CBD Target 11's concept of other effective area-based conservation measures; conservation trust funds; geoconservation and empowering the next generation. Other papers on best practice protected area management include contributions from Sikkim, India; Coastal East Africa; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mount Cameroon.

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-20-2/

Where now for protected areas? Setting the stage forthe 2014 World Parks Congress

In another paper preparing for the 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress, we here review the six most important changes affecting protected areas over the last two decades: (1) a new protected area definition with more emphasis on nature conservation; (2) a plurality of management and governance models; (3) acknowledgement of wider protected area benefits beyond nature conservation; (4) greater social safeguards for protected areas; (5) evidence that protected areas are effective conservation tools; and (6) a new emphasis on larger protected areas, transboundary protected areas, connectivity conservation and landscape approaches. The paper concludes by considering fresh challenges as a result of policy changes and the global criminal wildlife trade.

Link: journals.cambridge.org/

Conserving dryland biodiversity: a future vision of sustainable dryland development

One of two papers we have worked on recently on drylands, this paper acknowledges that drylands offer significant opportunities for achieving both conservation and development objectives simultaneously, but that a more nuanced vision of sustainably managed drylands is needed. This should reflects social and ecological realities and provide a framework against which policies and investments can be assessed. Such a vision should be based on the intersection between sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation, which encompasses the following four components: adapting green economic growth to the drylands; conservation and sustainable management of dryland biodiversity; and health as the basis for secure food and water provision; and resilience and risk management in uncertain environments.

Link: www.tandfonline.com/

Lessons learned from the loss of a flagship: The extinction of the Javan rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus from Vietnam

The last Javan rhino in mainland Southeast Asia was killed, probably by poachers, in 2010: the loss of a unique sub-species. This paper, led by Sarah Brook, examines how and why the extinction occurred, due to lack of political will, confused response strategies and growing pressure from the illegal wildlife trade. It suggests steps needed to avoid similar losses in the future.

Link: www.sciencedirect.com/

The role of protected areas in supplying ten critical ecosystem services in drylands: a review

Protected areas in drylands embrace a full range of management approaches, from strict protection to ‘protected landscapes’ where conservation is integrated with traditional lifestyles. They vary from government-run national parks to ancient examples of community conserved areas, such as the hima of the Arabian Peninsula. This paper presents a detailed review of options for dryland conservation, with numerous examples from dryland regions of the world, along with a typology of ecosystem services maintained.

Link: www.tandfonline.com/

PARKS 20.1

This issues starts with an editorial introduction to the forthcoming World Parks Congress in Australia in 2014. A diversity of papers follows on protected area management include: community involvement and joint operations aid effective anti-poaching in Tanzania; community engagement and implementation of a conservation plan in the Solomon Islands and fire management in a changing landscape: a case study from Lopé National Park, Gabon. Two papers provide overviews of conservation approaches in temperate indigenous grassland in South Africa and the European NATURA 2000 protected area approach. Research papers look at visitors’ characteristics and attitudes towards Iran’s national parks and participatory conservation and the patterns and extent of threats to the protected areas of Bangladesh: the need for a relook at conservation strategies. And finally an overview paper looks at realizing the potential of protected areas as natural solutions for climate change adaptat

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-20-1/

PARKS 19.2

Papers on the responding to disasters - the role of protected areas; Nature needs half: a necessary and hopeful new agenda for protected areas; The Serengeti of Asia: conservation in two major protected areas of the eastern plains landscape protected area complex, Cambodia; The vulnerability of communities around the marine protected areas of Bamboung, Cayar and Joal-Fadiouth in Senegal: places of adaptation to climate change; Improving the sustainable operation of a world heritage site: increasing energy efficiency and implementing a renewable energy system on Aldabra Atoll; Multi-level co-management in government-designated protected areas – opportunities to learn from models in mainland Southeast Asia; The three new R’s for protected areas: repurpose, reposition and reinvest; Transboundary protected areas management: experiences from W-Arly-Pendjari parks in West Africa and a draft code of practice for research and monitoring in protected areas.

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-19-2/

Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards Version 1.1

Conservation Assured (CA) is a new conservation tool to set minimum standards for effective management of target species. The first species-specific CA standards are for the tiger. The Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) scheme provides an incentive to those responsible for tiger conservation areas in the 13 tiger range countries to improve the effectiveness of management. Launched in 2013 after two years of development, CA|TS is now being implemented in tiger range countries and the first CA|TS sites will be approved in 2014.

Link: www.conservationassured.com/

Natural Solutions: Protected Areas Protecting People: A tool for Disaster Risk Reduction

Four-page paper summarising the role of protected areas in mitigating a range of natural disasters, published to coincide with the first Asia Parks Congress in November 2012. Available in English and Japanese

Link: www.iucn.org

IUCN WCPA Best Practice Guidance on Recognising Protected Areas and Assigning Management Categories and Governance Types

The IUCN protected area management categories is a core document for the development, reporting and understanding of protected areas worldwide. In this reprint of the 2008 categories new text on Recognising Protected Areas and Assigning Management Categories and Governance Types, drawing on global best practice and extensive consultation, provides guidance on implementing the categories.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/iucn_assignment_1.pdf

Governance of Protected Areas: From understanding to action

This IUCN Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series No.20 is an important tool to help enhance governance diversity and quality for the world's protected area systems. Part 1 provides an overview of the four different protected area governance types recognised by IUCN, featuring numerous examples from all over the world. It also addresses the complex question of what constitutes good governance in various circumstances. Part 2 offers practical guidance for countries willing to embark on the process of assessing, evaluating and improving governance for their systems of protected areas or for individual protected area sites.

Link: www.iucn.org/Governance-of-Protected-Areas-From-understanding-to-action

Social and Economic Benefits of Protected Areas: An Assessment Guide

The manual describes a detailed assessment methodology for use in protected areas, backed up by many case studies and examples. It includes both scoping assessments and more detailed assessment methods for the most important ecosystem services, assessments of both individual sites and protected area systems, and advice on communicating results.  

Link: www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415632843/

Planificación del manejo de áreas protegidas en América Latina: Un enfoque basado en los Estándares Abiertos para la Práctica de la Conservación (Protected ar

This handbook offers a series of practical tools which aims to empower those who manage protected areas to develop their own management plans. Available only in Spanish, the publication is based on a draft version in English developed some years ago by José Courrau, Sue Stolton, Nigel Dudley, Jora Young, Dan Salzer, Cristina Lasch, Oscar Maldonado and Jamison Ervin.

Link: catie.ac.cr/manual_areas_protegidas/

PARKS 19.1

Papers on the CBD protected area targets, tigers in India, landscape approaches in Bhutan, India and Nepal, livelihood conflicts in Ghana, recent migrants and a protected area in Australia, applying IUCN protected area management categories in the UK, elephant corridor in Kenya, benefit sharing in Zambia, marine protected areas in the Pacific, and lessons from large scale conservation in Australia.

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-19-1/

Ecological restoration for protected areas : principles, guidelines and best practices

This publication provides guidance for terrestrial, marine, and freshwater protected area managers at both system and site levels on the restoration of natural and associated values of protected areas. As this sometimes necessitates restoration beyond protected area borders (e.g., to address ecosystem fragmentation and maintain well-connected protected area systems), this guide uses the term ‘restoration for protected areas’ for activities within protected areas and for activities in connecting or surrounding lands and waters that influence protected area values. It provides information on principles and best practice, with examples, and advice on the process of restoration, but is not a comprehensive restoration manual and does not give detailed methodologies and techniques

Link: www.iucn.org/

The High Ground: Biocultural diversity and conservation of sacred natural sites in the Eastern Himalayas

Series of articles emerging from a meeting between religious scholars and conservation biologists in Thimpu, Bhutan. Authors consider the role of sacred natural sites in conservation, the likely impacts of climate change in the region and the opportunities for Buddhism to help address threats to the environment.

Link: awsassets.panda.org/downloads/the_high_ground.pdf

Putting Natural Solutions to Work: Mainstreaming Protected Areas in Climate Change Responses

Results of a workshop on the Island of Vilm, Germany, which examined options for integrating protected areas into national climate change response strategies. Includes case studies from Mexico, Costa Rica, SE Europe, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, South Africa, the USA and Canada, plus a draft tool for assessing adaptation and mitigation opportunities offered by individual protected areas.

Link: www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/service/BfN-Skript-321.pdf

Guidelines for Applying the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories to Marine Protected Areas

Detailed guidance on the application of the IUCN protected area definition and management categories in marine protected areas, available in English, French and Spanish. The guidelines expand on the 2008 Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories, discussing how these can be applied in a marine context.

Link: www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/marine

PARKS 18.1

Re-launched journal, now as an open access, online and peer reviewed journal covering all aspects of protected area management. This issue contains papers on the CBD's Aichi targets, New Zealand grasslands, fencing PAs in Africa, great green macaw conservation in Costa Rica, motivations for visitation in Canadanian PAs, crop wild relatives, cultural landscape approach in Australia, Pacific island conservation, marine protected area startegies and hunting and PAs in Iran.

Link: parksjournal.com/parks-18-1/

Protected areas: providing natural solutions to 21st Century challenges

SAPIENS (Surveys and Perspectives Integrating Environment and Society), is a peer-reviewed, open access, multidisciplinary journal focused on integrating knowledge to promote sustainability research. This special issue focussing on the expert commissions of IUCN includes this article from IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas presenting its work on defining and applying the new concept of “nature-based solutions” to global challenges.

Link: sapiens.revues.org/1254

Protected Landscapes and Wild Biodiversity. Values of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes Series No. 3

This volume examines more inclusive forms of protected areas, such as ‘protected land- and seascapes’ (category V in IUCN nomenclature), can be an effective tool for biodiversity conservation, and if so when they are likely to be most effective.  It begins what will hopefully be an ongoing process to investigate wild biodiversity within these management approaches and to analyse the scientific and conservation values of these areas in more depth.

Link: www.iucn.org/

Managing Natural World Heritage: World Heritage Resource Manual

The goal of this Resource Manual is to help State Parties to manage natural values within World Heritage properties and to help managers understand and incorporate World Heritage concepts and processes into natural site management.

Link: whc.unesco.org/en/activities/

Putting Nature on the Map: Identifying protected areas in the UK. A handbook to help identify protected areas in the UK and assign the IUCN management categories to them

In 2008, Nigel Dudley edited IUCN's revised guidance on protected area management categories. At the end of 2009, the Chair of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) requested the IUCN National Committee for the UK (IUCN NCUK) to apply the revised guidelines in the UK. This resulted in the IUCN NCUK project: Putting Nature on the Map. Developed over a year of consultation, field testing and workshops the Handbook, Putting Nature on the Map: Identifying protected areas in the UK,  provides the guidance needed to help apply the categories in the UK. A draft of the handbook was compiled by Helen Miller and Andy Tasker of Middlemarch. The final version was edited for IUCN NCUK by Adrian Phillips, Sue Stolton and Nigel Dudley.

Link: www.iucn-uk.org/Projects/ProtectedAreas/

Going Global: IUCN’s Global Program on Protected Areas

In Rethinking Protected Areas in a Changing World: Proceedings of the 2011 George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites this paper reviews the current and planned activities of IUCN's work on protected areas.

Link: www.georgewright.org/

Improving management – sharing approaches: Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit

Short article in the IUCN/ICCROM Capacity Building Newsletter on how the Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit Equilibrium worked on for natural World Heritage sites is increasingly being used in cultural sites.

Link:   Download PDF

National Parks with Benefits: How Protecting the Planet's Biodiversity Also Provides Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem services are declining just when their value is being fully appreciated. The world’s protected areas provide the largest single source of secure ecosystem services alongside their more recognized roles of biodiversity conservation and recreation.Yet discussions about protected areas rarely focus on the ecosystem services they provide and from which they could benefit financially. Rather than look at protected areas as preserves cut off from our human activity except as tourist destinations, we need to recognize their broader role in our economies. This article provides an initial overview of how this coujld be done.

Link: www.thesolutionsjournal.com/

Natural solutions: protected areas helping people to cope with climate change

An editorial for the journal Oryx reviewing how protected areas contribute to both mitigation and adaptation strategies by addressing the causes of climate change and helping societies to respond, and adapt, to the changes that are occurring.

Link: journals.cambridge.org/

Ensuring quality and eff ectiveness in protected area management

A brief review of the developments in assessing the management effectiveness of protected areas.

Link: www.europarc.org/

Ensuring That Protected Areas Play an Effective Role in Mitigating Climate Change

A chapter in a new volume on Ecological Consequences of Climate Change: Mechanisms, Conservation, and Management edited by Erik A. Beever, USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Bozeman, Montana, USA; Jerrold L. Belant, Mississippi State University, USA. The chapter looks at some steps needed to make the best use of protected areas within national strategies to address climate change, reviews briefly the financial implications and discuss whether protected areas could be suitable for some new carbon-related funding streams emerging from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and voluntary efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Link: www.crcpress.com/

Managing for climate change – developing strategies for protected area managers

Proceedings of a workshop co-organised by Equilibrium Research at the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the Island of Vilm, Germany which bought together experts from around the world to help develop strategies for protected area managers to understand likely climate change impacts and plan management responses at a site level.

Link: www.bfn.de/

Do protected areas contribute to poverty reduction?

Protected areas are increasingly expected to contribute to poverty reduction strategies. To find out how realistic this is, we looked at the current and potential roles of protected areas in addressing poverty reduction, by carrying out a comprehensive literature review and by applying a standardised assessment method to a group of protected areas around the world that a previous assessment suggested had strong social values.

Link: www.tandfonline.com/

Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Korea’s Protected Area System

This paper outlines the main findings of a study of the management effectiveness of protected areas in South Korea (Republic of Korea). The assessment was conducted at two levels: a site assessment of 39 protected areas, representing about 40% by area of the Korean protected area system and a system-level assessment conducted by an international review team incorporating field visits, interviews with staff and stakeholders and review of relevant documentation.The assessment results generally show that individual protected areas are well managed on any international comparison.

Link: ebook.knps.or.kr/upload/pdf/c0020.pdf

Putting plans to work: IUCN’s commitment to protected areas

A short full colour booklet released at the CBD's COP-10 in Japan which lays out why IUCN-WCPA think investing in protected areas is important and lays out its commitments to making the vision of the Programme of Work
on Protected Areas a reality.

Link:   Download PDF

The revised IUCN protected area management categories: the debate and ways forward

A review of the changes made in the IUCN protected area management categories revision in 2008. The debates that accompanied the revision process encapsulate some of the key issues and challenges surrounding protected area policy and practice in the early 21st century. This paper summarises these debates and offer some policy recommendations for the international conservation community.

Link: journals.cambridge.org/

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Report for Local and Regional Policy Makers (Chapter 7)

This chapter on Ecosystem Services and Protected Areas in the TEEB report for Local and Regional Policy Makers argues that protected areas are an important resource for policy makers and can be a benefit, not a burden to local populations. By considering the ecosystem services they provide, local policy makers can identify these benefits, and provide motivation for the establishment  of protected areas (PA) beyond conservation – that of enhancing local human well-being.

Link: www.teebtest.org

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Report for Local and Regional Policy Makers (Chapter 5)

This chapter on Ecosystem Services in Rural Areas and Natural Resource Management  in the TEEB report for Local and Regional Policy Makers notes the relevance of an ecosystem service perspective in increasing the potential for effective natural resource management. It argues that such an approach is not only ecologically sound, but also holds economic benefits both for those directly dependent on them and for the national economy in terms of medium and long-term cost and benefits.

Link: www.teebtest.org

Protected Area Management Effectiveness in Europe: A Review of Application, Methods and Results

The European Study on protected area management effectiveness  evaluation was conducted between May 2009 and March 2010. Its main purpose was to provide an overview of existing protected areas evaluation in Europe with respect to extent of application and methodologies.The report includes a synthesise of the results of the evaluation data gathered with respect to overall management effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, threats and recommendations.

Link: www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/service/Skript_271a.pdf

Arguments for Protected Areas: Multiple Benefits for Conservation and Use

Summarising and building upon the last 10 years of the Arguments for Protection project, this book provides a concise and persuasive overview of the values of protected areas. It is written by over fifty contributing authors from across the world, presenting a global perspective on the subject. As such it is a contribution to advocacy for new protected areas, can help secure existing protected areas and ensure that management is appropriate and well-informed. It examines a wide range of values that are maintained in protected wild and cultural landscapes, including food, water and materials; health; tourism; cultural and spiritual values; and buffering capacity against climate change and natural disasters. The book also considers the role of protected areas in poverty reduction strategies, their relationship with traditional and indigenous people and in fostering conflict resolution through peace parks initiatives.

Link: www.routledge.com

Valuing Protected Areas

A review of 19 different values of protected areas; this report highlights the numerous values that protected areas can offer, and details some of the World Bank’s contributions to these different dimensions of protected area management. This report was launched by the World Bank at the Global Environment Facility (GEF)Assembly in May 2010.

Link:   Download PDF

Proceedings for the Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress: Protected Areas Benefit Assessment Tool

Equilibrium Research ran two sessions at the Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress in Melbourne, Australia in April 2010 providing a training session on the Protected Areas Benefit Assessment Tool and launching our new book Arguments for Protected Areas at a workshop session. The presentations are included in the Congress proceedings.

Link: www.healthyparkshealthypeoplecongress.org/

Proceedings for the Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress: Arguments for Protected Areas

Equilibrium Research ran two sessions at the Healthy Parks Healthy People Congress in Melbourne, Australia in April 2010 providing a training session on the Protected Areas Benefit Assessment Tool and launching our new book Arguments for Protected Areas at a workshop session. The presentations are included in the Congress proceedings.

Link: www.healthyparkshealthypeoplecongress.org/

Protected Area Management Effectiveness in Europe Supplementary Report: Overview of European Methodologies

A summary of the methodologies disucssed in the report Protected Area Management Effectiveness in Europe: A Review of Application, Methods and Results

Link: www.bfn.de/fileadmin/MDB/documents/service/Skript_271b.pdf

Vital Sites: The Contribution of Protected Areas to Human Health

This the seventh report in the Arguments for Protection series, takes as its starting place the health crisis caused by environmental destruction and discusses the role protected areas can play in promoting well-being.Healthy ecosystems in general, and protected areas in particular, can play a vital role in providing food and clean water, controlling infectious diseases, absorbing wastes, regulating climate and are the source of much of the cultural, spiritual and recreational inspiration needed to maintain mental and physical health - as well as being the providers of the essential materials needed for traditional medicine and modern pharmaceuticals. As with the other reports in the Arguments for Protection series this report provides the most detailed global overview to date of the role of protected areas in ensuring human health.

Link: assets.panda.org/downloads/vital_sites.pdf

Next Steps: Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas

This paper, which Equilibrium Research was commissioned to develop and edit, outlines proposals from IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) on new strategies  and opportunities arising from the review of the Programme of  Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) 10th Conference of Parties (COP) in Nagoya, Japan in 2010.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/the_future_of_the_powpa

Summary. Natural Solutions: Protected areas helping people cope with climate change

Three language (English, French, Spanish) summary of the Natural Solutions report.

Link:   Download PDF

Natural Solutions: Protected areas helping people cope with climate change

A report funded and commissioned by IUCN-WCPA, TNC, UNDP, WCS, The World Bank and WWF with a preface by Lord Nicholas Stern. The sixth report in the WWF Arguments for Protection series.  Natural Solutions details, for the first time, how protected areas contribute significantly to reducing impacts of climate change. This well referenced report discusses how protected areas store carbon and capture additional atmospheric carbon dioxide; and documents their role in maintaining ecosystem integrity and providing essential ecosystem services that will help us adapt to climate change. 

Link: www.iucn.org

International Workshop on the Future of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas

Overview of a workshop held in Jeju Island, South Korea, which brought together people from around the world to discuss next steps in the CBD's Programme of Work on Protected Areas, building up to the planned revision of the Programme in 2010.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/the_future_of_powpa_workshop_11_09.pdf

Korea's Protected Areas: evaluating the effectiveness of South Korea's protected areas system

The first national evaluation of Korea's protected area system, carried out by a joint team of in-country specialists and external reviewers from Australia, Finland and the UK. The evaluation was carried out using a methodology based on the WCPA management effectiveness framework, tailored to the particular need of the country, and included extensive site visits and stakeholder interviews.

Link: iucn.org

Communicating values and benefits of protected areas in Europe

Proceedings of a seminar on “Communicating values and benefits of protected areas in Europe” at
the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the Island of Vilm, Germany
in April 2009.

Link:   Download PDF

Data Credibility: What Are the “Right” Data for Evaluating Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas?

Protected area management effectiveness evaluation systems rely on a mix of expert knowledge and qualitative assessment. This paper proposes that decisions about the appropriateness of qualitative and quantitative data can be informed by considering issues of (1) the subject matter of evaluation; (2) available resources and data;(3) scale, scope, and time frame of the evaluation; and (4) risks associated with management of the site.

Link: www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117946202/grouphome/home.html

The Links between Protected Areas, Faiths, and Sacred Natural Sites

Paper published in Conservation Biology - Volume 23 Issue 3 (June 2009). The paper examins two ways in
which religious faiths can influence biodiversity conservation in protected areas. First, biodiversity
conservation which is influenced through the direct and often effective protection afforded to wild species in sacred natural sites and in seminatural habitats around religious buildings. Second, faiths which have a
profound impact on attitudes to protection of the natural world through their philosophy, teachings, investment
choices, approaches to land they control, and religious-based management systems.

Link: www.ingentaconnect.com

What makes a "protected area"? The new context from IUCN

A new international definition of a protected area gives greater emphasis to its nature conservation values than in the past and also improves the framework for classifying protected areas according to management objectives. What are the implications for the UK, if any? This article reviews the changes, discusses UK protected areas in this context and makes some recommendations for future initiatives.

Link: www.banc.org.uk/Articles/2009-1-Spring/ECOS-30-1-Cover.pdf

Defining Protected Areas : An international conference in Almeria, Spain 2007

The “Categories Summit” which is reported in these proceedings was a major contribution to the revision of the IUCN protected area management categories led by Nigel. The Summit took place in 2007, the proceedings were published in 2008 as a source document at the same time as the revised categories. The final version of the revised category guidance can be downloaded from IUCN at: data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/PAPS-016.pdf.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/

Landscape aesthetics in British National Parks

The second volume in the new series published by the Protected Landscapes Task Force of IUCN´s World Commission on Protected Areas on the Values of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes explores why protected landscapes are of great importance to local communities, and to the countries and regions in which they are found, for non-material reasons. The chapter on British National Parks focusses on Snowdonia in Wales. Snowdonia was initially protected for its landscape qualities, a mix of mountain peaks and ridges and cultural landscapes which have evolved over thousands of years. The chapter looks at the changing perceptions of this landscape over the last three hundred years, charting the growing appreciation of the areas special qualities through reference to visual art and literature. The publication is available in English and Spanish,

Link: www.conservation-development.net/

Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories

The IUCN protected area management categories are an attempt to provide a framework for the variety of protected area management types used globally. As such they represent a critical over-arching framework that helps to shape the management and the priorities of protected areas around the world. This revision of the 1994 version of the guidance to the application of the categories is the result of six years of work during which time  IUCN has consulted with a huge number of its members in special meetings, conferences, electronic debates and considerable correspondence. Available in English, French and Spanish.

Link: www.iucn.org

Valuing Nature: Assessing Protected Area Benefits

One of TNC's Quick Guides for Protected Area Practitioners, this publication summarises the process of undertaking a ‘Valuing Nature’ campaign, i.e. the identification, systematization and dissemination of information about the environmental, social and economic benefits provided by protected areas in order to generate political will, create public awareness, and mobilize and increased funding for protected areas.

Link: www.conservationgateway.org

Assessing and Creating Linkages: Within and beyond protected areas

The creation of landscape linkages is one of the most important developments in conservation biology. This Quick Guide, aimed at protected area planners and agency officials, summarises key principles in landscape linkages, and illustrates these principles with six brief case studies.

Link: conserveonline.org/

Filling the Gaps in Protected Area Networks

There are few hard and fast rules in establishing an effective network of protected areas. What works in one place may be unsuitable in another, and a flexible approach is essential. This Quick Guide explores a range of options for filling gaps in a protected area network, including setting up new protected areas, redesigning existing reserves, fostering a range of management and governance options, exploring other conserved areas, improving management effectiveness and restoring degraded areas.

Link: conserveonline.org/

Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit: Assessing management effectiveness of natural - World Heritage Series n°23

The result of a seven year field-based project; the Enhancing our Heritage Toolkit provides technical guidance on developing a monitoring system and a set of tools for carrying out a detailed assessment of management effectiveness. The toolkit is aimed specifically at natural World Heritage sites, but can be used in all protected areas, and is applicable to cultural World Heritage sites as well. Spanish and French versions of the toolkit can also be downloaded from the UNESCO web-site.

Link: whc.unesco.org/en/series/23/

Assessment of Management Effectiveness in European Protected Areas: Sharing Experiences and Promoting Good Management

The proceedngs of the first ever seminar on management effectiveness in Europe. The main focus of
the seminar was to hear from as many European countries as possible about their experiences in assessing management effectiveness and to develop an Action Plan to aid the continued sharing and developing of systems for the assessment of management effectiveness in Europe.

Link: www.bfn.de

Natural Security: Protected areas and hazard mitigation

The fifth report in the Arguments for Protection series, explores the increasing number and severity of so-called natural disasters, reviews how environmental degradation is contributing to this trend, looks at how conservation through protection is currently mitigating the impacts of hazards and disasters and discusses the options for further developing the role of protected areas in disaster prevention and mitigation strategies.  It includes detailed case studies on the impacts of floods in Bangladesh (2000), Mozambique (2000 and 2001) and Europe (2006), heat waves and forest fires in Portugal (2003), an earthquake in Pakistan (2005) and the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina in the USA (2005) in illustrating the natural disaster prevention and mitigation potential of environmental conservation.

Link: www.panda.org

Safety Net: Protected areas and poverty reduction

This report, the fourth in the WWF Arguments for Protection Series, uses new tools (see details of the Benefits Assessment Tool below) to analyse the links between protected areas and poverty reduction. Efforts to align protected areas and poverty reduction have continued for some time and have a mixed history; while some social programmes associated with protected areas have worked well there have also been plenty of failures. The report aims to give a balanced overview of what is happening around the world and of what appears to work and what does not.

Link: www.panda.org

Ecoregions with crop wild relatives are less well protected: Biodiversity 9:1&2

In situ conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR) is recognised as an important factor in maintaining global food security; however, until now there has been no systematic global assessment of the protection status of this vital source of  agrobiodiversity. This paper discusses in more detail the research carried for the Arguments for Protection report Food Stores to assess CWR global conservation status.

Link: www.tc-biodiversity.org/index2.htm

PARKS Magazine 17.1 Implementing the CBD PoWPA

The CBD's Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) is doubtlessly the most ambitious global commitment yet made by governments to completing a protected areas network. The PoWPA is four years old – and several of its ambitious deadlines have passed. This issue of Parks aims to recognise and celebrate the success in implementation and discuss some of the challenges in implementation and highlight activities which are in train to speed up the process.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/parks17_1_web.pdf

Protected Areas in Today's World: Their Values and Benefits for the Welfare of the Planet

Equilibrium contributed to several chapters in this volume including: Poverty and Protected Areas by Stephanie Mansourian, Liza Higgins-Zogib, Nigel Dudley and Sue Stolton; Drinking Water and Protected Areas by Nigel Dudley and Sue Stolton; and Protected Areas and Plant Agrobiodiversity by Sue Stolton, Nigel Maxted, Shelagh Kell, Brian Ford-Lloyd and Nigel Dudley.

Link: www.cbd.int/programmes/outreach/awareness/ts.shtml

The Protected Areas Benefits Assessment Tool: A methodology

The Protected Area Benefit Assessment Tool (PA-BAT) aims to help collate information on the full range of current and potential benefits of individual protected areas. It is a contributory methodology for the overall Arguments for Protection series, but is also a stand-alone tool that will be of wider use to the protected areas community. 

The PA-BAT has been primarily designed for use by protected area managers to work with stakeholders to identify important values and the benefits that they bring to a range of stakeholders, from local to global. The PA-BAT can also be used by local communities to identify values/benefits and by protected area advocates, such as NGOs, to help promote the range of benefits a protected area can bring. Because the tool has developed a standard typology of values and benefits the results from the tool can be aggregated to provide an overview of a portfolio of protected areas (e.g. regional groups, nationa

Link: wwf.panda.org/

Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool - Reporting Progress at Protected Area Sites: Second Edition

The Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) was originally developed to help track and monitor progress in the achievement of the World Bank/WWF Alliance worldwide protected area management effectiveness target. The Tracking Tool has however been used more generally to help monitor progress towards improving management effectiveness; for example it is now obligatory for all Global Environment Facility protected area projects to use the Tracking Tool three times during the projects lifespan and the tool has been modified for use in several national protected area systems. In addition, use of the Tracking Tool can help managers track progress in implementing protected areas commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. This revised version follows the experiences and lessons learned from hundreds of applications of the METT and regional training workshops on using the METT.

Link:   Download PDF

Protected Landscapes and Agrobiodiversity Values

The first volume in a new series published by the Protected Landscapes Task Force of IUCN´s World Commission on Protected Areas on the Values of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes. This volume presents twelve case studies from different parts of the world illustrating the role Protected Landscapes are playing in conserving agrobiodiversity and related knowledge and practices.

Link: www.conservation-development.net/

Tracking progress in managing protected areas around the world. An analysis of two applications of the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool developed by WWF and the World Bank

WWF has surveyed management effectiveness in over 330 protected areas in 51 countries, using the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) developed together with the World Bank. METT surveys were undertaken in 2004 and 2006, including 79 repeat surveys of the same sites. This global survey comprises the widest sample of protected area management effectiveness yet undertaken, using a consistent methodology across countries and repeated over time. This report summarises the key findings of this implementation.

Link:   Download PDF

Kaziranga National Park and World Heritage Site, India: Taking the Long View

Publication of the 2005 paper (see below) in the UNESCO volume World Heritage Forests, leveraging Conservation at the Landscape Level.

Link: whc.unesco.org/en/series/21/

Company reserves: Integrating biological reserves owned and managed by commercial companies into the global protected areas network – a review of options

This 'white paper' looks at the options for developing company protected areas, current initiatives and implications and gives recommendations for future developments. It concludes that there are clear incentives for companies in the establishment and management of areas for protection (good press, financial gain, and environmental services) and that formalising these activities into the global network of protected areas would have important benefits for the private sector:

Link:   Download PDF

Conservation Action Planning: A Review of Use and Adaptation in Protected Area Planning and Management

The Nature Conservancy’s Conservation Action Planning (CAP) process is one of the most widely used conservation planning tools in the world, both through TNC projects and increasingly by partners and by people unrelated to TNC. This review attempts to show (1) the geographic extent to which the CAP has been used, both within TNC and beyond its immediate influence, and (2) the degree to which CAP has been developed, adapted to different contexts and circumstances, and modified – in particular for protected area management planning.

Link:   Download PDF

Food Stores: Using protected areas to secure crop genetic diversity: Arguments for Protection series

Third in a series looking at the wider benefits of protected areas. Examines the role of protected areas in protected crop wild relatives and land races for agricultural stability, including many examples and case studies and also guidelines for protected area managers.

Link: www.panda.org

Evaluating Effectiveness: A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas, 2nd edition

The book provides technical guidance on assessing management effectiveness, which is proposed needs consideration of six elements: context, planning, inputs, process, outputs and outcomes: includes case studies from amongst others the Western India Ocean, Finland, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Australia and Catalonia, Spain. Second edition of a guide first published in 2000, but with considerably revised text and all new case studies.

Link: www.iucn.org

Beyond Belief: Linking faiths and protected areas to support biodiversity conservation

Religions influence biodiversity protection both through their actions and teachings, and because almost all faiths also have direct influence on the way that land and water is managed. For instance, sacred natural sites are almost certainly the oldest forms of “protected areas” and there are thought to be hundreds of thousands of them around the world, contributing to global efforts to conserve biological diversity. We survey these links in the 11 mainstream faiths and many local belief systems, and make recommendations for how faiths and conservation organisations can work more closely together. It is the second in our “arguments for protection” series, which looks at the wider benefits of protected areas (Running Pure, see below, was the first).

Link: www.panda.org/

Forests and Protected Areas: Guidance on use of the IUCN protected area management categories: Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series number 12

Technical guidance on the application of IUCN’s six protected area management categories to forest protected areas, with examples of each and of forests that are not in protected areas. Aimed to dispel the confusion that has arisen in terms of reporting forest protected area statistics in the context of the FAO/UNECE Forest Resource Assessments and the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Link: data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/PAG-012.pdf

Private Protected Areas in East and southern Africa: contributing to biodiversity conservation and rural development

This paper provides and overview of privately conserved areas in East and southern Africa, and assesses their conservation and socio-economic impacts. It considers key issues regarding the nature and future of these protected areas.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/parks_15_2.pdf

Les Aires Protégées à Madagascar: bâtir le système à partir de la base

Report of a second mission to Madagascar, working on plans to triple the area of protected areas within the country. Includes a draft tool to help governments make decisions about which IUCN protected area category and which governance type are most suitable for a particular protected area. In French with English summary.

Link:   Download PDF

The role of forest protected areas in supplying drinking water to the world's biggest cities

A summary of the book Running Pure (see below) produced as a contribution to a workshop on cities and protected areas, convened at the Fifth World Parks Congress.

Link: www.interenvironment.org/cipa/tui.htm

Opportunities and challenges for Kaziranga National Park, Assam over the next fifty years

The last one hundred years have seen major conservation successes in Kaziranga National Park, with populations of many endangered species rising and ecological integrity maintained. Maintaining these successes, however, is a management challenge. Kaziranga is a relatively small park, in a rapidly change natural and economic environment. The paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for Kaziranga over the next fifty years highlights the risk of the area becoming an ‘island’ in a sea of development and notes the urgent need to carry out a landscape level strategic environment assessment to ensure that conservation concerns are fully integrated into regional planning.

Link: whc.unesco.org/

Elan Durban: Nouvelles perspectives pour les Aires Protégées à Madagascar

Report of a mission on behalf of IUCN The World Conservation Union, to advise the government of Madagascar on its ambitious plans to triple the country’s protected area coverage. The report focuses principally on issues relating to management objectives and governance systems for the new protected areas, recommending a bottom up approach drawing on a full range of management and governance options. In French with English summary.

Link:   Download PDF

Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Finland's Protected Areas

A comprehensive Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of the Finnish protected area system was commissioned by Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services in 2004. The Finnish MEE is the first comprehensive agency-wide evaluation conducted in a developed country. As such, it serves as an example for future evaluations to be carried out in accordance with the targets of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas developed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Link: www.metsa.fi/mee/

Ecological Integrity - A draft assessment measured against key management targets for Serengeti National Park

The UNF-funded Enhancing our Heritage project has drawn on global expertise to develop a framework for monitoring and assessing ecological integrity in protected areas (see revised EoH workbook below). This framework was tested in Serengeti National Park (one of the nine World Heritage Sites taking part in the EoH project). The proposed General Management Plan (GMP) for Serengeti National Park and World Heritage Centre is based around meeting eight targets relating to biodiversity and ecological integrity. This paper presents the status, trends and a brief assessment of these eight indicators.

Link:   Download PDF

Ecological Integrity - Plans for monitoring the Serengeti ecosystem and threats to the ecosystem

An overview of the development of the Plan for Monitoring the Serengeti Ecosystem and threats to the ecosystem; a summary and frequency of all monitoring activities; and a detailed analysis of the indicators being monitored.

Link:   Download PDF

Towards Effective Protected Area Systems: An Action Guide to Implement the Convention on Biological Diversity Programme of Work on Protected Areas

The seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2004 adopted an ambitious Programme of Work on protected areas. This Action Guide to the Programme of Work on Protected Areas, one of the CBD’s Technical Series, describes the targets and timetables and provides an overview of potential steps, case studies, tools and resources for implementation.

Link: www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-18.pdf

Further development of tool kits for the identification, designation, management, monitoring and evaluation of national and regional systems of protected areas

Paper prepared for the first meeting of the CBD Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Protected Areas. The CBD’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas includes activities for the identification, designation, management, monitoring and evaluation of national and regional systems of protected areas, including ecological networks, ecological corridors, and buffer zones. Identification, designation, management and monitoring and evaluation of protected areas involves complex, multi-layered tasks. A range of tools has been developed to facilitate the implementation of these activities. This report describes 118 of these tools, as well as their sources of information and their relevance to the programme of work on protected areas. Gaps in tool availability are also noted. The paper was one of the official conference papers for an ad hoc meeting on protected areas held in Montecatini, Italy in June 2005.

Link: www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/pa/pawg-01/official/pawg-01-04-en.pdf

Towards an Effective Protected Areas Network in Africa: Experience in assessing protected area management effectiveness and future proposals

An ecologically representative network of effectively managed protected areas will make an essential contribution to sustainable development in Africa, maintaining biodiversity, environmental services and human well-being. This report summarises contemporary African experience with assessment of management effectiveness, drawing on a range of case studies, including outputs from a workshop organised by WWF and the World Bank in Kribi, Cameroon in June 2002 and subsequent assessments.

Link:   Download PDF

Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning

Two relevant papers were published in volume 6(2): Management effectiveness: assessing management of protected areas By Marc Hockings, Sue Stolton and Nigel Dudley and Options For Guaranteeing the Effective Management of the World's Protected Areas By Nigel Dudley, Marc Hockings and Sue Stolton.

Link: journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/

Parks: Volume 14: No 3. Protected Area Categories

More than 25 years ago, IUCN developed a preliminary system of protected area management categories to help make sense of the world's growing protected area network, aiming both to define and record the resources. This issue of Parks draws upon a review of this system, Speaking a Common Language (see below), highlighting the most important discussion, case studies and conclusions brought to light during the study.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/14_3lowres.pdf

Speaking a Common Language

Detailed analysis of the impacts of the six IUCN protected area management categories, carried out for IUCN with Cardiff University, including 18 case studies and providing clear guidelines on how changing uses mean a different approach to the categories including development of new guidance on their application. The publication is available in English and Russian.

Link: www.iucn.org/

Protected Areas and Certification

Paper written as a contribution to the 49th IUCN Environmental Policy and Law Paper “International Environmental Governance” edited by John Scanlon and Françoise Burhenne-Guilmin, outlining options for using certification as a means of ensuring management effectiveness of protected areas.

Link: data.iucn.org/

Assessing Management Effectiveness of Natural World Heritage Sites

Published in World Heritage Papers 10, this chapter describes the Enhancing our Heritage project and the relationship between the project's objectives and the monitoring requirements contained within the World Heritage Convention.

Link: whc.unesco.org/en/series/10/

Are protected areas working? An analysis of forest protected areas by WWF

The Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-7) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the proposed target of having an assessment of at least 30 per cent of each Party's protected areas, as well as evaluations of national protected area systems and ecological networks in all countries, by 2010. This updated version of the assessment presented to COP-7 (see below) demonstrates that effectiveness is strongly correlated with monitoring and evaluation.

Link: assets.panda.org/downloads/areprotectedareasworking.pdf

How effective are protected areas? A preliminary analysis of forest protected areas by WWF

Prepared for the Seventh Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2004, which focused on the role and importance of protected areas; this report outlines some preliminary results from the first application of the World Bank and WWF Site-Level Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (see below). This is the largest global survey yet undertaken of protected area effectiveness, using a single methodology.

Link: assets.panda.org/

Ecological and Socio-Economic Benefits of Protected Areas in Dealing with Climate Change

Protected areas are likely to suffer from the impacts of climate change, but they also provide some potential benefits, including mitigating disasters such as droughts and floods; preserving biodiversity; increasing water security; helping to safeguard against crop genetic stress; and helping to maintain food supplies, including fish stocks. Examples of the practical uses of protected areas are given for each of the subjects covered. This is a further addition to Equilibrium’s work on “arguments for protection” (see the publication “Running Pure” above) and will be expanded into a more comprehensive report in the future.

Link: assets.panda.org/downloads/buyingtime_unfe.pdf

No Place to Hide: Effects of Climate Change on Protected Areas

Ten years ago, Equilibrium co-authored a book on climate change and biodiversity, “Some Like it Hot”. Then the impacts of climate change remained mainly theoretical. This new paper provides an overview of recent research which reports on observed impacts due to changing climate inside the boundaries of protected areas. The results suggest that current protection strategies are not enough to maintain ecosystems; we need to start developing new management strategies to minimise likely detrimental impacts.

Link: assets.panda.org/downloads/wwfparksbro.pdf

Conserving Nature - Partnering with People

Equilibrium worked with WWF to produce a position paper for the 5th World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa and then produced a more popular version of the position, explaining WWF’s history in protected area projects, its views and plans for the future.

Link:   Download PDF

Running Pure - the importance of forest protected areas to drinking water

Approximately a third of the world’s hundred largest cities rely on forest protected areas to supply a substantial amount of their drinking water. This book reports on the research that produced the statistics; demystifies the links between natural forests and water resources, including drinking water; looks at the environmental and social implications; and gives a number of detailed case studies from around the world. It is the first in what we plan to be a series of wider “arguments for protection” looking at wider benefits from protected areas.

Link: assets.panda.org/

Running Pure - the importance of forest protected areas to drinking water: Summary

Summary of the Running Pure report

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/avspecial_water.pdf

Protection Assured

How do we guarantee that protected areas are actually being managed effectively to preserve their values. This discussion paper, produced by the WCPA task force on protected area certification for the 5th World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa in September 2003, outlines some options, ranging from the use of “danger lists” through various forms of self assessment to full scale certification systems, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Link:   Download PDF

Reporting Progress in Protected Areas: A site-level management effectiveness tracking tool

A site level questionnaire to help measure progress in management effectiveness of protected areas over time; the tracking tool uses multiple choice questions backed up by explanatory comments and identification of next steps. The tracking tool is being used widely in WWF, World Bank and Global Environmental Facility projects and has since also been adapted by the World Bank for marine protected areas. The Tracking Tool was revised in 2008.

Evaluating effectiveness: A summary for park managers and policy makers

In 1997, the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) set up a Management Effectiveness Task Force to focus attention on the issue of management effectiveness and to look at options for assessment. The Task Force developed an overall framework for assessment which was published by IUCN as part of the Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series in 2000 (see below). This summary document, published in English, Spanish, French and Bahasa Indonesian, provides an outline of the framework presented in that publication and makes some suggestions about how this might be used in practice. Our site includes English version, please contact us for others.

Link:   Download PDF

Forest Protected Areas: Why Should We Worry About Systematic Planning

Protected areas systems need to be carefully designed if they are to be effective at conserving biodiversity. This arborvitae special describes some of the current design constraints as they relate to forest protected areas, and introduces a WWF project that is aiming to address these shortcomings through development of a guide for systematic conservation planning.

Link:   Download PDF

Evaluating Effectiveness: A Framework for Assessing the Management of Protected Areas

Developed by the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Task Force on Management Effectiveness, the framework provides both overall guidance in the development of assessment systems and encourages basic standards for assessment and reporting.

An updated version of the framework was published in 2006 (see above).

The WCPA Management Effectiveness Framework - Where to from here?

In the proceedings of the May 2000, WWF-hosted conference on forest protected areas in Thailand, Beyond the Trees, edited by Devendra Rana and Liz Edelman.

Link:   Download PDF

The Use of Certification of Sustainable Management Systems and their Possible Application to Protected Area Management

In the proceedings of the May 2000, WWF-hosted conference on forest protected areas in Thailand, Beyond the Trees, edited by Devendra Rana and Liz Edelman.

Link:   Download PDF

Squandering Paradise. The Importance and Vulnerability of the World's Protected Areas

A report for WWF that looks at the extent of the problems facing the world's protected areas. It is illustrated with a range of specially commissioned case studies and many examples. The report explains why protected areas are important, looks at the trends and nature of the threats facing them, makes some predictions about the likelihood of losses and ends with some proposals and a call for action in the lead-up to the World Parks Congress in 2003.

Link:   Download PDF

Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas; Manejo efectivo de Areas Protegidas; L'efficacite de la gestion des Aires Protegees

A three-language supplement to the IUCN/WWF joint forest newsletter arborvitae reporting on an International Workshop on Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas, organised by the WWF/IUCN Forest Innovations Project and the World Commission on Protected Areas in association with the WWF-World Bank Alliance and the WWF Forests for Life Campaign, which took place in Costa Rica in June 1999. The document summarises the main results of the workshop, including a discussion about the objectives and scope of assessment and identification of some basic principles for assessing management effectiveness.

Link: cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/avspecial_management_effective.pdf

Effectiveness of forest protected areas

A paper prepared for the World Bank for the IFF intersessional meeting on protected areas in Puerto Rico (1999).

Link:   Download PDF

The role of forest protected areas in the landscape

A paper prepared for a meeting sponsored by The World Bank at the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington DC, 1999.

Link:   Download PDF

Partnerships for Protection

This book, the result of a collaborative project between IUCN and WWF, looks at how protected areas can be best placed within the larger framework of sustainable resource management and how their relationship to human communities is changing. Specifically, it explores innovative approaches to conservation involving individuals, communities, companies and governments and ways of ensuring that all major ecosystems are safeguarded. The essence of the approach is to build partnerships with those who have a stake in the care of land and water resources. The book draws on the expertise of 42 of the world's leading conservation experts who set forth their thoughts on new approaches to protected areas.

Link: www.nhbs.com

A preliminary survey of management status and threats in forest protected areas

A summary of the report Threats to Forest Protected Areas - see below.

Link: www.iucn.org/about/union/commissions/wcpa

Threats to Forest Protected Areas: Summary of a survey of 10 countries

In 1997, WWF formed a partnership with the World Bank to implement two forest conservation targets: to create 50 million hectares of new forest protected areas and to independently certify an additional 200 million hectares of forest. Following recognition of the scale of threats facing existing protected areas, it was suggested that the protected area target be extended to include improvement of management in either unimplemented protected areas or in protected areas currently threatened or undergoing degradation. As part of the planning for the new target, the WWF-World Bank Alliance commissioned a survey of the status of forest protected areas. This included a detailed literature survey of existing information and an expert survey of management status and threats in ten important World Bank client countries. The following report summarises some of the study's findings. A full copy of the results from the ten countries is available on paper only and can be purchased from the Forest C

Link: www.worldwildlife.org

Protected Areas for a New Millennium

The theory and practice of protected area management have both undergone dramatic changes in the last few years. Protected areas are becoming far more flexible in terms of their aims, definition, size and approaches to management. This joint IUCN and WWF discussion paper explores the implications of these changes, with respect to interpretation; design; management and assessment and verification.

Link:   Download PDF

Why research in natural forest reserves?

A discussion paper for COST Action E4, Forest Reserves Research Network Management Committee meeting, Fontainebleau, September 12-14 1996