Programme
Key Issues

Mr. Nikita LOPOUKHINE
Chair, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas
c/o Parks Canada - Parcs Canada
7th Floor
25 Eddy Street
Gatineau
Quebec K1A 0M5
Canada
Tel: ++1 819 956 9908
Fax: ++1 819 994 5140
Email: nik.lopoukhine@pc.gc.ca

The Convention on Biological Diversity Programme

The main focus of the task force effort will be the production of a volume on guidelines for the planning and management of protected areas for the objective of biodiversity conservation. To achieve this goal by 2004, we will

1. Form a small partnership of institutions interested in managing the project. (presently the management team consiss of WCPA, IUCN Protected Areas and Biodiversity Programmes, and WRI); and raise funds. Set up the management team.

2. Establish voluntary working groups to analyse six critical issues:

• Selection and management of systems and sites where biodiversity is the objective of management.
• Equitable sharing of costs and benefits from the management for biodiversity goals in protected areas.
• Options for conserving biodiversity in agricultural, forestry and fishing portions of the greater ecosystems surrounding protected areas.
• A special focus on options for conserving biodiversity in mountain and marine regions.
• Ways to anticipate, adapt, and manage protected areas for biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional change.
• Methods of accounting for the values of ecosystem services from protected areas.

3. Commission the preparation of case histories from protected areas around the world that have gained experience with policies and practices that can provide "lessons learned." Special emphasis will be given to World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves, mountain, coastal and marine sites, and areas that form parts of biological corridors.

4. Prepare a preliminary draft set of guidelines for discussion and revision at the 5^th World Parks Congress in 2002. The CBD and GEF are particularly keen to receive the input and advice of the WPC.

5. Revise and refine the draft guidelines. Present and debate them at SBSTTA and COP meetings in 2002 and 2003.

6. Publish and distribute the Guidelines in 2004, and present to COP7.

There is still time and opportunity to help us plan this project. You can join and help the effort by:

• Nominating sites with relevant policy and field experience.
• Help prepare case histories
• Contribute scientific thought and analysis; identify key literature.
• Host and sponsor consultations and working groups.
• Serve on one of the working groups.
• Sponsor publication and distribution of the guidelines in key languages.
• Contribute resources.
  
  
  

Key Issues

The CBD is a global effort to save biological diversity, promote its sustainable use, and ensure that benefits are distributed equitably. In its 8^th Article, it commits all government parties to establish systems of protected areas to conserve in situ biodiversity. The Article also reaches beyond individual sites to promote on-the-ground protection in adjacent areas and out across the landscape.

WCPA established this Task Force in 1999 to organise a focused contribution of the Commission to the CBD on protected areas and the provisions of Article 8. This effort represents a unique opportunity for us to bring the collective experience and wisdom of WCPA members to bear upon the CBD and to be of service to the entire world community.

Stemming from the Albany Symposium in 1997, WCPA and the World Resources Institute people have developed a project to address this mandate. We are now preparing a proposal to GEF to help cover the expenses of the project. We have greatly benefited from the help and advice of Walter Lusigi (GEF Secretariat, Senior Biodiversity Advisor, and WCPA member), Marc Zimsky (Biodiversity, UNEP, Nairobi), and Rob Wolcott (Senior Policy Advisor, US/Environment Protection Agency). Olivier Jalbert (Assistant Executive Secretariat of the CBD Secretariat) is helping us engage appropriately with the CBD process.

The goal of the project is to secure the conservation of biodiversity in situ for the purpose of sustaining the flow of ecosystem goods and services to support people's lives and livelihoods. This will be achieved by establishing appropriate types of protected areas or through the use of other special measures according to the biodiversity values involved and the social and economic context. Specifically, this cooperative effort will develop guidelines on how protected areas can best be established and managed in the context of the dramatic and accelerating biophysical, social-economic and institutional changes anticipated in the 21^st Century.

The central activities of the project are:

• Collect and analyze lessons learned from field experience (using existing, on-going, and new case studies) to reveal best practices and policies;
• Integrate field experience, emerging science, and global change to develop draft guidelines for testing, modeling, and further refinement; and,
• Distill the valuable principles, lessons, and best practices, and disseminate them as guidelines to decision makers, managers, and civil society.

We have already held exploratory and consultative workshops in conjunction with CBD events in 1998, 1999 and most recently in Nairobi in May 2000, to engage Parties, NGOs and others in the design and formulation of the project. As a result, the project will focus on eight critical issues facing protected areas in coming decades:

• How to select and manage PAs for the objective of biodiversity conservation?
• How to establish and manage PAs in ways that are community-friendly?
• How to conserve and manage biodiversity out beyond PA boundaries in adjacent agricultural, forestry, and fishery landscapes, and where mining is taking place?
• What economic tools and institutional arrangements can help conserve biodiversity while achieving fair and equitable sharing of the costs and benefits involved?
• How can the conservation of biodiversity be strengthened in mountain and marine regions? (Two biomes of special value for ecosystem services where investment in conservation has been neglected.)
• What options are there to conserve biodiversity in indigenous territories?
• How can biodiversity be maintained in the face of the major biophysical, socio-economic, and institutional changes anticipated in coming decades?
• How can efforts to protect and manage in situ biodiversity be monitored and evaluated for their efficiency, and their status reported to the citizenry and authorities?

WCPA members are already well advanced in the development of guidelines for selection criteria, mountain and marine PAs, economic tools, and evaluation. The project will build upon ongoing work by IUCN, WWF, the Global Environment Facility, and others.

WRI and WCPA/PPA will be responsible for project management. Eight working groups will be established to focus on the critical issues. The Task Force will then consist of WCPA, the Programme on Protected Areas of IUCN, WRI, the eight working group chairs, and interested members of WCPA. An advisory group will be formed to bring to the project the experience and perspectives of WCMC, UNESCO/MAB, World Heritage Centre, FAO, Ramsar, WWF, CI, TNC, and other organizations with particular responsibilities for in situ conservation and protected areas. IUCN and WRI staff working on associated topics, including biodiversity economics, marine protected areas, wetlands, information management, forest conservation, among others will also be involved.

The first milepost will be the 5^th World Parks Congress due to be held in 2002 where the project will provide the first draft set of guidelines for debate and improvement by the world's leading PA experts. The CBD Secretariat and the GEF have both requested that we capture the collective experience of Congress participants in developing the guidelines. We will continue to present our evolving drafts at informal workshops at CBD events. Then, the final delivery milepost will be the 7^th Conference of the Parties in 2004. Beyond the CBD, we also aim to provide our guidelines to NGOs, indigenous leaders, and the general public through an active outreach program.

Funds are being raised from various sources, including the Dutch, US, and Norwegian governments, SIDA, and GEF, and in-kind contributions from WRI and IUCN programs, US/EPA, and several foundations.