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

Protected areas are the cornerstones of biodiversity conservation and have never been more relevant than at the present time when the world is facing both a biodiversity and a climate change crisis. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) has been helping to set global standards and best practice guidelines in protected area planning and management for 60 years. Following this guidance, many countries have made significant progress toward their Aichi Target 11 commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The global community will be coming together at the 15th Conference of the Parties of the CBD to set new biodiversity conservation targets for the next decade, as milestones to 2050 and a vision of “a world living in harmony with nature.” This paper lays out the WCPA perspective on priorities for supporting effective protected and conserved areas for the post-2020 era

Natural Solutions: Protected areas helping people cope with climate change

This report provides an exhaustive overview of the literature regarding the role protected areas play in reducing emissions from land use change, and sustaining ecosystem services that will be vital to reducing the vulnerability of humans to climate change. Section 3, Adaptation – The role of protected areas, looks at reducing the impacts of natural disasters, safeguarding water, addressing health issues and biodiversity conservation and maintaining ecosystem resilience

The IUCN green list of protected and conserved areas: Setting the standard for effective area‐based conservation

The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas is the first global sustainability standard describing best practice for area-based conservation. The standard is organised around four components — Good Governance, Sound Design and Planning, Effective Management and Successful Conservation Outcomes — subdivided into 17 criteria and 50 indicators. IUCN manages a ‘Green List’ of protected and conserved areas through a certification process that examines evidence assembled by site managers against each of the criteria and indicators. The assessment of evidence is carried out by an independent group of experts in the governance and management of protected and conserved areas, overseen by an independent reviewer to ensure that proper processes and appropriate evidence are used in the assessment. The objective of the IUCN Green List programme is to increase the number of protected and conserved areas around the world that deliver successful conservation outcomes through good governance, sound design and effective and equitable management. The IUCN Green List programme is currently operating in 40 countries and by August 2019, 46 sites in 14 countries had been awarded the Green List status. There are a further 400+ protected and conserved areas engaged in the process. The challenge remains to scale up the Green List programme to the point where it is truly global in operation and able to provide both a stimulus and a metric for effective conservation

The Promise of Sydney: an editorial essay

The IUCN World Parks Congress is a once in a decade event that has traditionally been a major forum for advancing global protected area policy and practice. The Congress this November in Sydney Australia will be run along eight streams; addressing biodiversity, climate change, health, ecosystem services, development, governance, indigenous peoples issues and youth; cross-cutting themes address marine issues, capacity building, World Heritage and a New Social Compact. In the following extended editorial, the organisers of the various streams lay out their aims and hopes for the 2014 Congress

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 conserved areas