The programme has been undertaken with the support of many organisations and in partnership with many more.

The main funders of the work of the Commission and the IUCN Programme on Protected Areas (PPA) have been UNESCO (The World Heritage Centre), the Dutch Government, the Italian Government and the US State Department. Without their generous support, we would not be viable. We also acknowledge the financial support of IUCN itself, many of whose members are either protected area agencies or have a great interest in protected area issues. British Airways has helped us on many occasions particularly with the provision of concessionaire tickets for WCPA meetings . The Nature Conservation Bureau of Japan supported a number of important protected area projects within East Asia.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service of New South Wales (Australia) and the National Ocean Service of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been particularly generous in making available the time of staff and WCPA members to work on protected areas activities. The World Bank/GEF is supporting preparatory work for the World Parks Congress, as is South African National Parks. Many other national protected area agencies have helped WCPA over recent years. We have also undertaken projects with support from the European Commission, UNDP GEF and others.

Other organisations have been both funders and programmatic partners, such as WWF, and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. There is a long list of international, regional and national bodies which have collaborated with us: for example, UNEP/WCMC, the EUROPARC Federation and Cardiff University (UK). There have been many partners in Europe in the implementation of the Parks for Life programme. To this list should be added the many agencies, universities, NGOs etc. who employ WCPA members and encourage them to devote time to WCPA's work.

Our programmatic partners include the other Commissions of IUCN - for example, with the Environmental Law Commission in relation to Parks for Peace, and the Commission on Education and Communication in relation to protected area activities within Europe. Other programmes of IUCN particularly the Economics and the Forest Conservation Programme, and the Secretariat's Regional and Country Offices have worked closely with WCPA/PPA.

A volunteer network depends on such support and, as the programme accelerates in the run-up to the World Parks Congress, WCPA will need to attract more sponsors and partners. While financial support is always welcome, support in kind, secondments, and joint activities are other ways in which we can make the modest resources of IUCN go much further. Partnerships not only make sense in terms of resource support, they also bring new ideas and fresh perspectives. Most importantly, they bring lasting relationships that enrich the work of IUCN and WCPA.

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