Developing landscape approaches to conservation remains a key area of interest. An important focus for this work during 2010 is writing a book on the concept of authenticity of ecosystems for Earthscan. We developed the concept of authenticity in our earlier work on forest quality; this project applies it more generally from a social and ecological perspective and looks at practical implications for land and water management. As part of the project we are carrying out a series of field trips in 2010 to wilderness areas in tropical Australia and boreal Canada.

We are working with WWF to develop landscape approaches to conservation, looking at integrating protected areas with other forms of conservation management, building on previous research presented at a workshop at the 2008 World Conservation Congress. 

Equilibrium is currently working with the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme to design and implement a project looking at the role of ecosystem-based adaptation in addressing climate change in the Pacific, including a workshop in Samoa in May 2010. 

Nigel Serves of the High Conservation Value technical committee, run out of ProForest in Oxford in the UK. 

Equilibrium runs a database of tools for implementing broad-scale conservation. The Earth Conservation Toolbox http://www.earthtoolbox.net/ contains information and where possible web links to over 300 tools. If you know of conservation tools you think should be included, please contact us.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) remains a major focus, in collaboration with the CBD, WWF and IUCN. We coordinated a paper on progress to date on PoWPA and proposals for post-2010, Next Steps: Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas, working for WCPA and with Sarat Gidda of the CBD. The paper was initially discussed at a meeting in South Korea in September 2009 for which workshop proceedings have been released. 

We continue to work on the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories. We assessed the category status of four Korean national parks in 2009 and Sue has just carried out another mission to assess a further five national parks. We recently took part in a workshop in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Townsville, Australia, developing more detailed guidance on categories for marine protected areas. We have also been working with the IUCN UK Committee on re-categorising protected area management categories in the UK; this process will hopefully be extended to other European countries.

We continue to work on protected area management effectiveness, with recent work on National Nature Reserves in Scotland and with the Korea National Parks Service. Nigel is part of a team assessing the Colombia National Parks. Work continues on the UNESCO Enhancing our Heritage project to monitor natural World Heritage Sites and Sue recently visited Tanzania to help set up an assessment in Ngorogoro Crater. Further work is planned in Tanzania, Thailand and Finland.

Nigel is lead editor on the third volume in the series on Category V Protected Areas, in association with IUCN and GTZ, looking at biodiversity in protected landscapes. Sue is part of the overall editorial team for the series.

The seventh in our WWF Arguments for Protection series was published in March 2010. Vital Sites looks at health and protected areas. A sixth volume, Natural Solutions, was published by WWF, the World Bank, UNDP, Wildlife Conservation Society, IUCN WCPA and The Nature Conservancy in November 2009. Sue is lead editor of an overview volume, Arguments for Protected Areas, launched in April 2010. The role of protected areas in ecosystem services is discussed in a paper under preparation with Stephanie Mansourian for the World Bank. A project looking at links between faiths and protected areas in the Terrai Arc is ongoing, with a major conference planned for Bhutan in May 2010. Equilibrium is also running a workshop in Germany in August in association with BfN, looking at how protected area managers can respond to climate change. We also recently completed a paper for WWF-US on the role of protected areas in REDD schemes. 

The Protected Areas Benefits Assessment Tool, developed by Equilibrium in 2008, is being used in protected area assessments in Turkey, Ethiopia and Bosnia Herzegovina. A modified PA-BAT for use on climate change adaptation is in development.

Nigel is working in Vietnam on a monitoring system for protected areas as part of a multi-donor project called the Vietnam Conservation Fund.

We continue to disseminate our work through papers, articles and workshops. Over the last few months this includes papers in Conservation Biology, Ecos and Biodiversity and attendance at the first national protected areas congress in Colombia and the Healthy Parks, Healthy People conference in Australia and a presentation at a conference on climate change and Environment in Turkey in March 2010. Nigel has been part of an overview team on a forthcoming volume on protected areas and the law from the Environmental Law Commission.

Equilibrium is working on a manual on managing natural World Heritage sites, in association with the IUCN protected areas programme. 

Nigel is currently vice-chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas on capacity building and this is taking a great deal of our volunteer time. Both Nigel and Sue are also on the steering committee of a joint World Commission on Protected Areas – Species Survival Commission task force looking at links between biodiversity and protected areas.

Over the last few years our work has focused primarily on our core areas of concern: broadscale conservation and protected areas (often together). But we continue to carry out other projects that are of interest.

Equilibrium has been involved in working on two volumes of the major research programme The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, focusing in particular on the role of protected areas and natural ecosystems. The project has included a series of workshops in Europe, in Brussels, Prague and Vienna. The report for policy makers was published in November 2009 and the report for local government is due for publication during 2010.

The economic and social impact analysis of a major plantation project in Uruguay, which Nigel has been carrying out for the Finnish-Swedish pulp company Stora-Enso, has been completed. Anyone interested can download the summary from our publications under "Society and Environment", or contact us for the full report.
We plan to launch a series of Equilibrium Briefings focusing on key issues relating to society and the environment during 2010.