A global study of management effectiveness is launched to find out.
Rome, Italy, 11 February, 2008 (IUCN)
 How effective are the world’s protected areas? That’s the focus of a new report launched by IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Commission on Protected Areas. The Global Study of Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas examines the way people manage protected areas, key problems they may encounter and ways to improve how they work. It also allows those working inthe field to exchange experiences and swap knowledge. The report compiles the existing work on management effectiveness evaluation, reviews methodologies, finds patterns and common themes in evaluation results, and investigates the most important factors leading to effective management. It will be launched during the second meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) ad-hoc open-ended working group on protected areas and will be an important step towards achieving the target set by the CBD of assessing 30% of their protected areas by 2010. The Global Study of Management Effectiveness was undertaken by IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and University of Queensland to support the CBD work on management effectiveness.Its implementation was supported by WWF International, the Nature Conservancy and the University of Queensland, This is part of the on-going efforts of IUCN and its partners’ efforts in promoting and supporting the implementation of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas. The key findings from this landmark study are:
- Protected areas need to be effectively managed to ensure that the biodiversity and other values that they were established to protect are actually conserved.
- A management effectiveness evaluation can assist protected areas agencies and managers in four primary ways:
- Better managing (adaptive management),
- Reporting (promote accountability and transparency),
- Allocating resources efficiently (prioritising),
- Building a supporting constituency (stakeholder participation and understanding)
- The project compiled and examined assessments of more than 6,300 protected areas in nearly 100 countries – this represents a good start towards the CBD target of assessing 30% of protected areas, but much remains to be done.
- Analysis of the results of these assessments have highlighted that management of many protected areas needs improvement – about 21% of sites assessed were considered to have “sound” management while management was clearly inadequate in 14% of cases.
- Key areas of management deficiency were lack of adequate and reliable funding for management, weak programmes of community benefit and assistance, and inadequate involvement of and communication with communities and stakeholders.
- Legal establishment of protected areas, boundary marking and resolution of tenure issues were among the more highly rated aspects limiting management but, encouragingly, the condition of natural resources were among the indicators showing better performance across the protected areas in the sample.
- Poaching and illegal collection of wood and forest products were the most commonly reported threats.
The study has found an increasing interest and activity by countries around the world in assessing the effectiveness of management of their protected area systems – this is to be encouraged and supported if the world’s protected areas are going to achieve their objectives on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of resources whilst enhancing the livelihoods of local communities. IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas reaffirms its commitment to assist governments and NGOs in achieving this essential task as a key contribution to conserve our natural heritage for the benefits of present and future generations.For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:
- Djinn Pourkiani, Communications Officer, IUCN Programme on Protected Areas,
Tel: +41 22 999 0166; Mobile: +41 22 999 0025; Email: djinn.pourkiani@iucn.org; Web: www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa
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