The Six Key Result Areas - KRAs

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Key Result Area 1: Understanding Biodiversity

IUCN’s heartland lies in its established networks of expertise related to biodiversity. The primary focus of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission and Commission on Ecosystem Management is on providing information about the status of nature and natural systems – taking account of both living and non-living aspects and the complex of interactions among and between them. In addition, IUCN has increasingly sought to understand and promote local and traditional knowledge
of biodiversity.

While IUCN has long emphasised the importance of knowledge about natural systems for sound conservation planning, it also recognises that there is a lack of relevant data both to understand biodiversity as well as to provide inputs
for integrated analysis. With the explosion of information technology, demands for user-friendly data are expanding. New intergovernmental initiatives (e.g. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and Johannesburg Plan of Implementation) provide an opportunity for IUCN to influence important processes as a major provider of biodiversity knowledge. By answering key questions on the status and trends of biodiversity, and by offering tools and methods for others to use in carrying out assessments at a scale suitable for their situation, IUCN is helping create the knowledge to understand the relationship between biodiversity and key processes, both direct and indirect, which cause biodiversity loss.

Result 1.1 (Knowledge)
Improved understanding of species and ecosystems as well as of ecological processes and ecosystem functions

Result 1.2 (Knowledge)
Tools and methods are available to assess status and trends of species and ecosystems at all levels

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Key Result Area 2: Social Equity

Social equity refers to the right of everyone to enjoy a rewarding quality of life9 and the need for fair and equitable distribution of the benefits and costs of conserving and using natural systems among different social groups and individuals.10 Social equity is a fundamental condition for achieving conservation and enhancing sustainability of use of natural resources.

IUCN has pioneered the inclusion of social equity considerations within conservation policies, programmes and projects at the local, national, regional and global levels. IUCN continues to work with members and partners on a range of social equity issues in the context of conservation, such as the needs and interests of indigenous and traditional peoples, gender equity, poverty, tenure and natural resource rights, environmental security and ecological vulnerability.

IUCN has dedicated increasing attention to exploring how to make effective contributions to the reduction of poverty through socially responsible conservation. It is committed to supporting the Millennium Development Goals by promoting and practising a poverty-focused approach to conservation. This seeks to ensure that the sustainable use of biological resources is employed positively to help the poor obtain a sustainable and desirable livelihood. Delivering effectively on this commitment represents a significant challenge, not least because many questions about linkages between poverty and conservation or social equity and conservation remain unanswered. In KRA 2, IUCN will seek to improve knowledge on how social equity and biodiversity management are interdependent, and enhance understanding of the underlying social-equity causes of biodiversity loss.

Result 2.1 (Knowledge)
Improved understanding of the interdependent nature of social equity and biodiversity conservation

Result 2.1 (Knowledge)
Tools and methods are available to mainstream social equity in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use policies and practice

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Key Result Area 3: Conservation Incentives and Finance

Attempts to conserve nature without understanding the economic and social incentives that drive biodiversity loss are bound to fail. Through the following three results, IUCN will improve knowledge of market failures and policy distortions that underpin unsustainable resource use, emphasise the value of healthy ecosystems, and find alternative means to correct perverse market incentives and increase financial flows for biodiversity conservation. Conservation managers need such information as much as policy-makers and entrepreneurs seeking to balance environmental against economic trade-offs.

Result 3.1 (Knowledge)
Improved understanding of how markets, institutions and socio-economic forces create incentives or disincentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity

Result 3.2 (Knowledge)
Tools and methods are available to assess tradeoffs between economic, social and environmental values

Result 3.3 (Knowledge)
Improved approaches to integrate environmental and economic values in decision-making, including methods for mobilizing new and additional finance for biodiversity conservation

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Key Result Area 4: International Agreements, Processes and Institutions for Conservation

International agreements and the institutional arrangements that support them (including secretariats and advisory bodies) are important elements of environmental governance. They include the full suite of hard and soft law instruments, together with voluntary initiatives, such as those undertaken by multinational businesses and public-private partnerships such as the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund.

IUCN has been a key player in developing, providing advice to and implementing the main biodiversityrelated conventions, particularly through the expertise of its Commission on Environmental Law.

IUCN also provides a platform to bring governmental and nongovernmental actors together in negotiations and to find solutions to contentious issues such as dams and the impact of extractive industries on biodiversity.

IUCN is improving its ability to influence a broader range of international processes and institutions, including corporate social and environmental responsibility and trade.

This key result area essentially defines action that IUCN will take to address strengthen multilateral policy processes and corporate social responsibility of multinational business where they affect biodiversity.

Result 4.1 (Knowledge)
Improved understanding of how international arrangements can support more efficient, effective and equitable biodiversity conservation and sustainable development

Result 4.2 (Empowerment)
Enhanced capacities of decisionmakers to understand and promote the relevance and effectiveness of international arrangements that impact on biodiversity conservation

Result 4.3 (Empowerment)
Enhanced participation of all relevant actors in the development, implementation, review and adaptation of international arrangements that impact on biodiversity conservation

Result 4.4 (Governance)
Improved relevance and effectiveness of international environmental arrangements

Result 4.5 (Governance)
Non-environmental international arrangements promote biodiversity conservation as a key element of successful sustainable development

Result 4.6 (Governance)
Multi-national businesses support biodiversity conservation

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Key Result Area 5: Ecosystems and Sustainable Livelihoods factors

Well-managed landscapes and seascapes are the basis of sustainable development and human security. Although all people depend on ecosystem goods and services, disadvantaged groups such as poor people, women and ethnic
minorities are especially vulnerable to changes in environmental conditions. The sound management of ecosystems is, therefore, critical to addressing underlying causes of biodiversity loss, and an essential requirement for meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

IUCN’s work on ecosystem management at the transboundary, national and local levels builds on its evolving understanding of the ecological, social and economic processes, institutional arrangements and legal regimes that affect natural systems and in turn, helps to set the agenda for further research and activities.

IUCN promotes integrated ecosystem management that reconciles social equity, economic efficiency and ecological sustainability by:

developing and disseminating tools, methods and decisionsupport systems that enable people to make informed choices balancing biodiversity conservation and human development objectives;
facilitating the development of skills and capacities of marginalized sectors to participate meaningfully in local and national governance systems;
promoting efficient use and equitable distribution of goods and services from well-managed ecosystems by integrating social needs into management plans and strategies;
improving the effectiveness of transboundary, national and sub-national political processes by enabling the involvement of stakeholder groups in decisions on ecosystem management and restoration.

In recent decades, national authorities have increasingly devolved responsibility for the management of natural resources to local governments, the private sector and local communities and user groups. IUCN works with all these stakeholders to share knowledge, build capacity, empower marginalized stakeholders and improve environmental governance.

Result 5.1 (Knowledge)
Improved understanding of how social, economic and environmental objectives can be reconciled in the management and restoration of ecosystems

Result 5.2 (Knowledge)
Tools and methods for integrated management and restoration of ecosystems

Result 5.3 (Empowerment)
Stakeholders make informed choices and negotiate outcomes that balance biodiversity conservation and human development needs

Result 5.4 (Governance)
National and sub-national policies, laws and institutional arrangements better integrate human wellbeing with biodiversity conservation

Result 5.5 (Governance)
Governance structures take into account the rights, responsibilities and interests of stakeholders and allow for their equitable participation in decision-making regarding biodiversity conservation and human development

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Key Result Area 6: Programme Delivery

In order to effectively manage the delivery of the Programme, IUCN must respond successfully to changing conditions, continually improve organizational capacity and efficiency, and ensure clear institutional policies and values. Moreover, IUCN requires an approach which ensures it learns from experience, manages knowledge, and incorporates lessons learned into the Programme, while making certain that the best possible results are produced from available resources. In short, Key Result Area 6 is designed to ensure that IUCN is effective, efficient, adaptive and accountable.

KRA 6 comprises all of the organizational support systems, procedures and processes that are vital for the implementation of the IUCN Programme. The results contained within KRA 6 are divided into the eight results outlined below. Unlike KRAs 1 to 5, the results contained within KRA 6 are not aligned around IUCN’s strategy
elements of Knowledge, Empowerment, and Governance. KRA 6 refers uniquely to the operation of the Programme, rather than its impact on nature and people.

Result 6.1: Governing the Union
The governing bodies of IUCN structured and supported to optimize organizational performance and impact

Result 6.2: Programme Development
IUCN's Programme is developed in response to contemporary needs for conservation action and lessons learned

Result 6.3: Learning and Knowledge Management
Lessons learned incorporated into ongoing Programme development and delivery of the IUCN Mission

Result 6.4: Funding
Financial resources generated to ensure the effective delivery of the IUCN Mission and Programme

Result 6.5: The Capacity to Deliver
Capacity and means of the Secretariat, Commissions, members and partners supported, adapted and enhanced to effectively deliver the IUCN Programme

Result 6.6: Operational Policies and systems
Internal policies and structures adapted to the needs of the Union and Programme, and implemented at all levels

Result 6.7: Management
Internal procedures in place which reflect standards of best practice, accountability, and incentives, and support the delivery of the IUCN Programme

Result 6.8: Institutional Outreach
IUCN’s members, partners, and other institutions catalysed and supported in working towards the IUCN Vision and Mission

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