Developing landscape approaches to conservation remains a key area of interest for Equilibrium.

Nigel is working on a collaborative process to examine the role of plantations in the landscape with WWF International, and has developed a series of “white papers” on ecosystem approaches, social values and high conservation value areas as they relate to tree plantations. The first phase of the project should be ready late in 2008. 

Sue recently edited a special edition of the IUCN forest conservation newsletter arborvitae on landscapes and conservation, in association with Ecoagriculture Partners; the newsletter was launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October 2008. 

We are also starting a project with WWF to develop landscape approaches in two ecoregions, looking at the integrating protected areas with other forms of conservation management. These issues have been explored in a recently published guide for The Nature Conservancy and the CBD calledFilling the Gaps in Protected Area Networks.

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), agreed in 2004, has been a major focus of our work over the last few years. We have been working with the CBD, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in the United States, WWF International and IUCN – the World Conservation Union on various projects which contribute to the monitoring and implementation of the Programme. 

Our major project of the last two years, which was launched at the World Conservation Congress in October, is the revised guidelines to the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories. This follows two years of intensive work led by Nigel for the World Commission on Protected Areas. As well as launching the guidelines, sessions at the Congress investigated how the work on researching, disseminating and further developing the guidelines will continue over the next few years.

At the World Conservation Congress Sue took part in a session on management effectiveness, launching the UNESCO and the UN Foundation project Enhancing our Heritage: monitoring and managing for success in Natural World Heritage Sites. The technical report is now available and we will be working with World Heritage sites to ensure that the results are fully implemented.

The second volume in the series on Category V Protected Areas was also lauched at the World Conservation Congress. This issue focuses on Protected Landscapes and Cultural and Spiritual Values. As well as Sue being part of the overall editorial team for the series, this volume includes a chapter written by Sue, Nigel and colleagues on Landscape aesthetics in British National Parks; looking particularly at Snowdonia National Park in Wales.

Sessions at the Congress also presented the work we have been leading for WWF on Arguments for Protection - the latest volume in preparation looks at health and protected areas. Sue also took part in an expert workshop on land stewardship and private land conservation, an area we hope to develop in greater detail over the next few years.

We continue to work on protected area management effectiveness, with current work helping to develop a system for National Nature Reserves in Scotland and Nigel is part of a team carrying out an assessment of the protected area system in South Korea. We recently published two more guides for protected area practitioners with The Nature Conservancy on Assessing Protected Area Benefits and Assessing and Creating Linkages. The latter is being expanded into a larger multi-author technical guide for the Convention on Biological Diversity.

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 articles and conferences. Sue ran a workshop on protected area management effectiveness at the Europarc conference in Brasov, Romania in September 2008. Sue and Nigel both made several presentations during the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October 2008. Nigel spoke at a meeting launching the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool for freshwater sites at the Ramsar Convention conference of parties in Changwon, Korea and also gave a lecture at the 1st International Workshop on Better Management of World Natural Heritage in Jeju Island, Korea in the same month.

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. 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 recenty been completed. Nigel is also working with WWF on a multi-organisational study of the new generation of pulp plantations, the first phase of which should be completed late in 2008. 

Nigel has also edited the latest issue of IUCN's Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy journal Policy Matters on Climate Change and Human Society, which was published in October 2008.