Commitment to further develop the use of the IUCN protected area management categories follows the review of the categories carried out by the Speaking a Common Language (SaCL) project. The Task Force takes its mandate from Recommendation 19 of the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress and Resolution 3.048 of the 2004 IUCN World Conservation Congress. The February 2004 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) recognised the value of the IUCN categories system and of the SaCL research, and encouraged Governments and others to assign protected area management categories to their protected areas.

The Task Force has been established to address a number of urgent issues relating to the IUCN protected area management categories. Key aims are to:

• Provide clarity with respect to both the IUCN definition of a protected area and how protected areas fit into broadscale conservation strategies and the needs of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas
• Clarify the objectives and the parameters of the 6 existing IUCN management categories (with respect to assignment, use, recording etc)
• Demonstrate how the categories can be integrated to help plan and build a strong protected area system through ecosystem approaches
• Ensure that related systems, such as the World Database on Protected Areas are integrated with the categories
• Produce a new and expanded set of guidelines to the use of the categories
• Develop capacity building materials and support related to implementation of the IUCN categories
• Carry out monitoring and research on the effectiveness of the categories as conservation tools

The aims of the Task Force are being implemented through a transparent and public multi-stakeholder consultation process.