The Durban Action Plan

Revised Version, March 2004

This Action Plan is an edited version of the document which was reviewed and further developed by participants at the Vth World Parks Congress. Work on this document has involved inputs from a wide range of sources and extensive consultation before and at the Congress itself. The process has been led by a Durban Accord and Action Plan Working Group, chaired by Roger Crofts. Final editing of the document provisionally agreed to at the Congress has been undertaken by Adrian Phillips, in consultation with Tim Jones and Roger Crofts.

Contents

Introduction

Outcome 1: Protected areas fulfil their full role in biodiversity conservation

Outcome 2: Protected areas make a full contribution to sustainable development

Outcome 3: A global system of protected areas, with links to surrounding
landscapes and seascapes, is in place

Outcome 4: Protected areas are effectively managed, with reliable reporting
on their management

Outcome 5: The rights of indigenous peoples, including mobile indigenous
peoples, and local communities are secured in relation to natural
resources and biodiversity conservation

Outcome 6: Younger generations are empowered in relation to protected areas

Outcome 7: Significantly greater support is secured for protected areas
from other constituencies

Outcome 8: Improved forms of governance are in place

Outcome 9: Greatly increased financial resources are secured for protected areas

Outcome 10: Better communication and education are achieved on the role and benefits of protected areas

Implementation

Glossary of abbreviations and acronyms

CBD Convention on Biological Diversity
CEESP Commission on Economic, Environmental and Social Policy
CEL Commission on Environmental Law
CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
COP Conference of Parties
GEF Global Environment Facility
IUCN The World Conservation Union
MPA Marine Protected Area
NEPAD New Partnership for African Development
SBSTTA Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
TILCEPA Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
WCPA World Commission on Protected Areas
WDPA World Database on Protected Areas
WSSD World Summit on Sustainable Development

Introduction

The Vth IUCN World Parks Congress marked a turning point for protected areas. It placed them at the centre of international efforts to conserve biodiversity and promote sustainable development. By taking as its theme 'Benefits Beyond Boundaries', the Congress recognized that protected areas cannot exist in isolation from the surrounding land and sea. Nor can they be managed without regard to the communities and economic activities within and around them. The Congress affirmed the immense value of protected areas to society, now and in the future. Finally, participants committed themselves to working with many partners to deliver a wider agenda for protected areas in the future.

Progress and Challenges

There has been much progress since the IVth IUCN World Parks Congress in Caracas in 1992, but much more remains to be done. Box 1 sets out the balance sheet as it was in 2003.

BOX 1 - PROTECTED AREAS: THE BALANCE SHEET IN 2003

Call to Action

The world urgently needs an ecologically representative, effectively managed, global network of protected areas. Without this, society will miss out on the many benefits that protected areas can bring, the chances of alleviating poverty will be reduced and the inheritance of future generations will be greatly diminished.

In the past, the protected areas community has not sufficiently engaged with its many potential allies. It now needs to reach out to the wider community of interests that can benefit from the existence of well-managed protected areas. The need to make those connections is the underlying message of The Durban Accord: Our Global Commitment for People and Earth's Protected Areas. The Accord establishes a new paradigm for protected areas, and issues a call for commitment and action from everyone involved in and affected by protected areas. The accord is supported by the Message to the Convention on Biological Diversity also adopted in Durban.

To realize the goals of the Accord, action involving many stakeholders is needed at global, regional, national and local levels. This is turn requires that targets are set and progress is monitored and reported upon. The Durban Action Plan sets out the required targets and action. The leadership of IUCN, and particularly the members of its World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), will be vital in translating the plan into reality.

The Durban Action Plan is for all who are engaged in, or whose activities affect, protected areas in any way, whether or not they attended the Congress. While the plan is not an inter-governmental document, it is the outcome of a unique international gathering of people and interests drawn from many sectors and every part of the world. It does not attempt to offer a detailed prescription for all nations and all protected areas, but nonetheless provides a checklist of the activities needed to increase the benefits of protected areas to society and to improve their coverage and management. Most importantly, it is intended to bring about action.

Action Plan layout

The Durban Action Plan is organized around ten desired outcomes and related targets, broadly reflecting the main themes of the Congress. Under each outcome, it identifies the required levels of action. Most of the recommendations endorsed by participants at workshops at the World Parks Congress are cross-referenced as footnotes.

Outcomes

There are two over-arching outcomes that the plan aims to bring about:

1. Protected areas fulfil their full role in biodiversity conservation.

2. Protected areas make a full contribution to sustainable development.

The plan aims to being about eight further outcomes:

3. A global system of protected areas, with links to surrounding landscapes and seascapes, is in place.

4. Protected areas are effectively managed, with reliable reporting on their management.

5. The rights of indigenous peoples, including mobile indigenous peoples, and local communities are secured in relation to natural resources and biodiversity conservation.

6. Younger generations are empowered in relation to protected areas.

7. Significantly greater support is secured for protected areas from other constituencies.

8. Improved forms of governance are in place.

9. Greatly increased financial resources are secured for protected areas.

10. Better communication and education are achieved on the role and benefits of protected areas.

Targets

Targets in the action plan are of two kinds: 15 main targets, and a larger number of supporting targets. One or more main targets are set out under each Outcome: they are consistent with targets agreed to at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and are intended for achievement by the time of the next World Parks Congress. They are summarized in Box 2. Supporting targets are found throughout the document and have a variety of end dates.

BOX 2 - 15 TARGETS TO BE ACHIEVED BY THE TIME OF THE VITH WORLD PARKS CONGRESS

In order to assess progress towards each of these main targets, IUCN should develop a set of performance indicators and regularly review these over the next ten years.

Levels of Action

As far as possible, there is a discrete list of recommended actions under each of the ten Outcomes listed above, which are designed to achieve the targets. However, some overlap and duplication is unavoidable, especially between some of the actions listed under Outcomes 1 and 2 and those listed under later Outcomes.

The levels of action, which the plan aims to bring about, are:

International action at intergovernmental level through UN and other international institutions, and through conventions, treaties and other agreements;

Regional action at intergovernmental level through various regional conventions and other arrangements;

National action by governments and other interests;

Local action by devolved administrations and civil society; and

Protected area authority action by protected area authorities and other organizations with responsibility for protected areas planning and management.1

At each of these levels action will be needed through multi-stakeholder partnerships and cooperation between governmental, statutory, private, not-for-profit, community, civil-society and business interests.

In addition, IUCN-led or IUCN-promoted action is identified, and the lead within the Union is nominated. Based on this, more detailed implementation plans should be developed by IUCN for action by the Secretariat, Commissions and Members. These proposed actions should be incorporated in the Inter-sessional Programme (2005-2008) to be adopted by IUCN at the World Conservation Congress in Bangkok (November 2004).

Implementation

The Durban Action Plan concludes with a section that draws together the main points about implementation.

Outcome 1:
Protected areas fulfil their full role in biodiversity conservation

Biological diversity has economic, cultural, aesthetic, spiritual and intrinsic values. Its effective conservation requires a complete global representation of protected areas within each ecoregion. Priority should go to filling gaps in the global protected area system with new protected areas and more effective management of existing protected areas. There is an urgent need for action where species and habitats are irreplaceable or face imminent threat. To reduce the rate of loss of biological diversity, an effective network of protected areas should be based on an adequate understanding of the distribution of species, habitats, ecosystems and ecological processes across all scales. This requires systematic conservation plans and decision-support tools.

Over the past 30 years or more, the international community has adopted a number of measures to support national action for biodiversity conservation. The most important are the CBD and the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention - WHC), which are the main focuses of recommended action below. Other important measures include the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Bonn Convention), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention), along with many regional agreements.

More recently, the 6th Conference of the Parties to the CBD (CBD COP6) set an ambitious goal of achieving "by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth". This goal was reiterated in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation adopted at the WSSD in 2002. The WSSD also endorsed the creation of a representative network of marine protected areas by 2012, a key contribution to the 2010 target.

All these agreements, and related national action, are supported by the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), which is maintained by the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre with the support of the WDPA Consortium.

The CBD recognizes the importance of in situ biodiversity conservation through the establishment of protected areas. They are essential to the achievement of all three objectives of the CBD - objectives that are in turn critical to sustainable development. CBD COP7 in 2004 will give special attention to protected areas. This provides an important opportunity to take action towards achieving internationally-agreed biodiversity targets and objectives. These include the target already adopted by COP6.

The Vth World Parks Congress adopted a 'Message to the Convention on Biological Diversity' as well as a Recommendation 5.4 on Building Comprehensive and Effective Protected Area Systems. Both contain targets and other required action for the attention of the CBD COP7, and which are directly relevant to Main Target 1. This section of the Durban Action Plan draws on those products.

International Action

• Adopt the supporting target of maximizing representation of biodiversity through a global, representative and effectively managed system of protected areas, to be represented in all ecoregions by 2012. This should: (i) include viable representations of every terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystem; (ii) focus especially on threatened and under-protected ecosystems; and (iii) safeguard those species that qualify as globally threatened with extinction under the IUCN criteria. Creating such a system will require the adoption of the ecosystem- and species-related targets set out in Box 3.
  
  

BOX 3 - ECOSYSTEM- AND SPECIES-RELATED SUPPORTING TARGETS

• Adopt a supporting target to implement a strong, comprehensive and sustainable programme of capacity building in relation to protected areas by 2005, including an implementation support mechanism.
• Adopt a supporting target to require information on management effectiveness to be included in the national reporting process by 2008 and request the Secretariat to distribute this information.
• Work with Contracting Parties to develop assessment systems for management effectiveness, to be applied as an initial supporting target to 10% of all protected areas by 2010.
• Provide new and additional financial and technical resources to developing countries, noting that the Vth World Parks Congress identified that US$ 25 billion in additional annual support was required to establish and maintain an effective global system of protected areas.
• Request the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to commit a substantial increase in funding for protected areas in its next replenishment.
• Recognize the diversity of protected area governance approaches, such as community conserved areas , indigenous conservation areas and private protected areas2, and encourage Parties to support this diversity.
• Promote the adoption of good governance principles among Contracting Parties in relation to protected areas, such as the rule of law, participatory decision-making, mechanisms for accountability and equitable dispute-resolution institutions and procedures.
• Identify and encourage policy reforms by Contracting Parties in order to provide a supportive enabling environment for more effective management of protected area systems, and the sustainable use of biological resources in their surrounding landscapes and seascapes.
• Ensure that indigenous and mobile peoples and local communities fully participate in the establishment and management of protected areas and that mechanisms are put in place to guarantee that they share in the benefits arising from these areas.
• Promote synergies between the CBD and other global agreements and processes such as the World Heritage Convention, CITES, the Ramsar Convention and the Bonn Convention, as well as regional initiatives.
• Consider the IUCN Protected Areas management category system to be the common language that facilitates assessments of, and reporting on, protected area management (including on the Millennium Development Goal on Environmental Sustainability), and a baseline against which standards and indicators can be developed.
• Encourage Contracting Parties to provide complete, precise and timely reports of their protected area information on an annual basis through the WDPA.
• Take action to establish marine protected areas outside national jurisdiction, such as on the High Seas and in the Antarctic.

To promote these and other actions, the CBD COP should:

• Adopt a rigorous programme of work on protected areas that responds to the needs identified by the Vth World Parks Congress, as a contribution to meeting the WSSD 2010 target, and commit to its implementation.
• Establish effective means of monitoring and assessing the implementation of the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas, and - if assessment indicates that the progress is not adequate - consider adopting more demanding measures to ensure that protected areas can contribute most effectively to meeting the 2010 target.
• Request the consortium of institutions responsible for maintaining and managing the WDPA to continue the process of enhancing the quality of data, and making these publicly available and accessible.

Regional action

The CBD COP should work with Contracting Parties at the national and local level so as to work towards the achievement of the supporting targets set out above, and in particular encourage Contracting Parties to collaborate at the regional level in :

• The development of regional action plans to implement the CBD programme of work on protected areas proposed above, so as to ensure representative coverage and effective management of protected areas in each continent.
• The establishment of transboundary initiatives (for example, transboundary protected areas, and international programmes, networks and initiatives in support of their development) and multinational biological corridor programmes (for example, the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor).
• The incorporation of protected area systems into integrated programmes for the management of river basins shared by more than one State.
• Supporting regional agreements for environmental conservation (for example, the Africa Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources).

National and local action

The CBD COP should work with Contracting Parties at the national and local level to work towards the achievement of the supporting targets set out above, and in particular:

• Apply systematic conservation planning tools, using information on species, habitats and ecological processes, to identify gaps in the existing national protected area systems; and use these to help select new protected areas at the national level.
• Use zoning and other management planning processes to assist in designing and enhancing comprehensive protected area networks.
• Develop and implement innovative plans and legislation, involving all stakeholders, to conserve biodiversity and ecological processes effectively under various systems of land and resource ownership and usage rights, and across national boundaries.
• Establish an international network of training organizations involved in capacity building, under the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas.
• Enhance the coverage of protected areas by including community conservation areas, community managed areas, and private and indigenous community reserves within national protected area systems where these areas meet the IUCN and CBD definitions of a protected area.
• Ensure that further work towards building comprehensive protected areas systems takes full account of the rights, interests and aspirations of indigenous peoples, as well as of their desire to see their lands, territories and resources protected for their own social and cultural survival.
• Promote the socio-economic and cultural benefits of protected areas to foster support for the expansion of national networks of protected areas.
• Include within national and local biodiversity plans recognition of the contribution of that protected areas make to achieving all three CBD objectives and their part in meeting targets which help to measure progress in respect of these.

The CBD COP should also call on:

• Governments, local authorities, donors and development assistance agencies, the private sector, and other stakeholders to provide financial support for: (i) the strategic expansion of the global network of protected areas; (ii) the effective management of existing protected areas; and (iii) compensation for any costs borne by local communities.
• The private sector to adopt best practices that do not threaten, compromise or thwart the achievement of the above targets and assist in the establishment of a networks of protected areas.
• Governments to use other international instruments, such as the World Heritage Convention and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, to enhance the protection given to protected areas.
• Governments to pass domestic legislation to implement their convention obligations, with a view to achieving the supporting targets outlined above.

Finally, the CBD COP should:

• Develop measures appropriate to each CBD Contracting Party to help it implement the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas and monitor progress in achieving agreed targets.
• Establish, in support of the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas, an effective mechanism to measure progress towards the achievement of the above-mentioned supporting targets, and ensure the provision of adequate financing to support this, in accordance with Articles 8(m) and 20 of the CBD.

Protected area authority action

• Within their capacity and resources, to implement the measures agreed on in the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas and share relevant experience.

IUCN-promoted action on the CBD

Action: provide support and policy advice to the CBD, including the COP, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and the Secretariat of the Convention, on implementation of Article 8 of the CBD and the development of the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas.
Lead: IUCN Secretariat.

Action: support Contracting Parties in the implementation of the proposed CBD programme of work on protected areas.
Lead: IUCN Regional Offices and WCPA Regions.

Action: provide expertise to CBD COP, SBSTTA, Secretariat and Contracting Parties on protected area coverage, establishment and management, and the monitoring of achievements.
Lead: IUCN Secretariat.

The World Heritage Convention protects the world's cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value. There are currently 149 natural, 582 cultural and 23 mixed sites. However, attainment of the convention's full potential and coverage requires: (i) identification and nomination of remaining sites that meet the criteria for World Heritage status, notwithstanding inter-governmental jurisdiction disputes; (ii) capacity building and effective management, especially for World Heritage sites in Danger; (iii) priority in resource allocation; (iv) broader support; and (v) the complete avoidance of World Heritage sites by the minerals, and energy sectors, and the highest level of respect of such areas by other sectors .3

International action

The World Heritage Committee should give priority to achieving:

• Complete knowledge of potential World Heritage properties with important natural values around the world, including the world's key terrestrial, freshwater and marine biomes of outstanding universal value, leading to a comprehensive assessment of potential World Heritage properties.
• The identification of global and regional physiographic, natural and cultural phenomena - including World Heritage Routes. These will serve as the large-scale multi-national frameworks to be used in support of the nomination of national, serial and transboundary World Heritage properties, as well for other protected areas.
• Assessment of the recurrent costs required to manage all World Heritage properties.
• Greater international cooperation to assist developing countries in obtaining technical and financial support to nominate World Heritage properties of outstanding universal value, to manage them effectively, to enhance national capacity and to strengthen institutions.
• Better international, regional, national and site-based synergies and integration with other international conventions dealing with biodiversity and protected areas, in particular the CBD and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Priority should be focused on mobilizing resources and technical support.
• Development of improved mechanisms and guidelines for reactive monitoring, including response through World Heritage in Danger listing.
• Adoption and implementation of a Global Training Strategy for World Heritage site managers.

Regional action

The World Heritage Committee should encourage:

• The development of regionally harmonized tentative lists of potential World Heritage properties with natural and mixed values.

National and local action

The World Heritage Committee should work with States Parties to the Convention to:

• Prepare national policies and legislation for the protection of World Heritage properties.
• Increase World Heritage education and awareness measures.

Protected area authority action

The World Heritage Committee and national agencies should work with World Heritage site management authorities to:

• Seek the necessary skills and resources to improve management effectiveness of World Heritage properties with natural and mixed values.
• Establish public, private and community partnerships for the benefit of local communities affected by World Heritage properties.

IUCN-promoted action on the World Heritage Convention

Action: provide technical support to the World Heritage Committee and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre to achieve a thorough knowledge of the world's remaining potential World Heritage properties with natural or mixed values.
Lead: IUCN Secretariat and WCPA.

Action: agree a revised global scheme of biogeographical subdivisions as a basis for reviewing gaps in World Heritage coverage (and that of other protected areas).
Lead: WCPA Building the Global System Theme.

Action: make expertise available to improve mechanisms and guidelines for reactive monitoring and World Heritage in Danger listing.
Lead: IUCN Secretariat and WCPA.

Action: provide advice and expertise on all aspects of the identification, evaluation, management and monitoring of World Heritage sites; also on capacity building.
Lead: IUCN Secretariat and WCPA.

Outcome 2:
Protected areas make a full contribution to sustainable development

Though the contribution of protected areas is often overlooked, they are an essential component of the environmental, social and economic agendas agreed at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and further developed at the WSSD in Johannesburg in 2002. Thus, protected areas can contribute significantly to poverty alleviation, especially as many protected areas in developing countries exist side-by-side with indigenous peoples and poor rural communities who have least access to health, education and other services.

However, such communities are often adversely affected by the presence of protected areas; for example, they may lose access to resources which they have used in the past, or suffer from the behaviour of wildlife. It is important to correct situations where the burden of protected areas falls on indigenous peoples and local communities, and the benefits accrue at national and global levels. Expanding the scale of action from local to national and regional levels has the potential to reduce poverty and deliver greater social benefits at lower cost, and with greater benefits to conservation.

Equity demands that improvements to human welfare, in both material and other ways, should be promoted alongside more effective protected area management. In particular, employment opportunities through sustainable utilization of natural resources - for instance, environmentally sensitive tourism, sustainable coastal fisheries and water resource management - should be realized. The purpose of this part of the Durban Action Plan is to encourage action that ensures that protected areas contribute to the alleviation of poverty and do not exacerbate it . 4

International action

The relevant UN institutions along with the member organizations internationally, regionally and nationally should work together to achieve the following action:

• Focus on the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals and the outcomes of WSSD, especially the targets relating to the combined achievement of poverty alleviation and reduced loss of biodiversity.
• Recognize the role that protected areas can play in the social, economic and environmental components of sustainable development, and stimulate, through leadership and financial support, the integrated and mutually reinforcing approaches of the three components. In particular, there should be greater recognition of the role of protected areas in watershed management, forest land restoration, the provision of safe drinking water and the integrated management of marine resources from coasts to open oceans.
• Develop the means to capture the economic values of protected areas, so that these areas can better contribute to sustainable development and secure the resources needed to support their on-going protection.
• Ensure, through the design of Millennium Development Goal delivery mechanisms (especially the Task Forces of the UN Millennium Project), that a robust framework is in place to integrate management of all biologically significant areas with development processes at all scales.
• Support the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) Environmental Initiative through the implementation of the Durban Consensus on African Protected Areas for the New Millennium.
• Explore the means by which protected areas can contribute to, and be served by, Integrated Water Resource Management Plans mandated by the WSSD.

National and local action

• As part of national and local planning frameworks and action programmes, develop schemes for protected areas which avoid increasing poverty and help in its alleviation; and which encourage changes in patterns of production and consumption towards greater sustainability. Action should support the role that protected areas can play as places for protecting and managing natural resources for social and economic development, especially by encouraging the wider use of payments for environmental services from protected areas (for example, in the provision of safe drinking water supplies in a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable way; or for their role as potential sources of sustainable supplies of food).
• Introduce methods to recognize the total value of protected areas to economic activity, social well being, and environmental goods and services.
• Develop economic instruments to achieve sustainable development benefits from protected areas.
• Include Poverty Reduction Strategy processes as part of the regular planning and management of protected areas.
• Eliminate resettlement of indigenous peoples and local communities, and the enforced settlement of mobile indigenous peoples, without prior informed consent.
• Avoid conservation actions which cause or increase impoverishment, including cultural impoverishment.Work with businesses, protected area agencies and the voluntary sector to develop cross-sectoral approaches to sustainable development, in which protected areas are key components in regional and national sustainable development programmes.
• Adopt multi-sectoral approaches to capacity building and securing resources so as to support the role of protected areas in poverty alleviation and community development; the outcome should be integrated approaches where resources for other sectors complement, rather than conflict with, those used for biodiversity conservation.
• Integrate protected area management into wider development plans, and ensure that human population concerns are taken into account in protected area planning and management.
• Recognize that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is accelerating the unsustainable use of natural resources, and promote alternatives for the livelihoods of affected communities, including sustainable natural resource-based enterprises.
• Take action to prevent or mitigate human/wildlife conflicts in and around protected areas, including through the establishment of fora and support mechanisms to share lessons and strengthen skills in the management of such problems. 5

Protected area authority action

• Develop strategies and actions to promote the role of protected areas in: (i) mitigating disasters, such as floods, droughts, and marine and freshwater pollution; (ii) the creation of jobs and incomes for the local area; (iii) stimulating the ecologically sustainable use of renewable resources; and (iv) empowering local communities through active participation.
• Review all policies and legal systems, including those dealing with protected area tenure, finance, private-sector investment and institutional arrangements, that either work against, or could be adopted to encourage, sustainability.

Action: develop and disseminate best practice on how protected areas can contribute to poverty alleviation, especially in the fields of water resource management and human-wildlife conflict.
Lead: WCPA/CEESP Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas (TILCEPA) and CEESP Theme on Sustainable Livelihoods.

Action: develop programmes to enhance and demonstrate protected areas' contribution to poverty alleviation through: disaster prevention in relation to floods, droughts and landslides; the promotion of environmentally sustainable forms of tourism involving surrounding communities; and the use of renewable energy sources.
Lead: WCPA Equity and Peoples Theme, and CEESP Theme on Environment and Security and Theme on Sustainable Livelihoods.

Action: develop and promote guidelines on IUCN Protected Area Management Category VI, to complement those recently completed for Category V, showing how this category is potentially well-suited to support sustainable development objectives.
Lead: new WCPA Task Force on Category VI.

• identifying the limits of natural systems and their carrying capacity for different activities, both within and outside protected areas, through the application of scientific and traditional knowledge;
• developing methodologies for internalizing the costs of production and consumption, and measuring outcomes; and
• promoting policy and action in support of changed patterns of production and consumption.

• the development of resource-management programmes at appropriate scales, including areas beyond protected area boundaries;
• the introduction of methods for identifying the total value of protected areas to society;
• the application of traditional and other knowledge in the environmentally sustainable use and management of natural resources. Action should focus on agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and mineral resources;
• actions that contribute to reduction in global warming;
• greater scientific understanding of resource management and the development of risk-assessment measures, including application of the Precautionary Principle; and
• developing, implementing and helping to fund programmes that address conflict between humans and wildlife.

Outcome 3:
A global system of protected areas, with links to surrounding landscapes and seascapes, is in place

There are now many more protected areas than at the time of the IVth World Parks Congress, covering 11.5% of the world's land area. This is a significant achievement by governments and others throughout the world. Much of this is due to global treaties and programmes (notably the CBD, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species, the World Heritage Convention and UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme), and regional agreements and action programmes. Nevertheless, there are still many gaps in the network. Many species and key ecosystems are inadequately represented, and too many protected areas lack a strong legal basis, political support and/or effective implementation.

A particular concern arises over the lack of protection for marine systems, in both sovereign and international waters. Less than 1% of the ocean is protected. There has been a worldwide collapse in fisheries and attendant environmental damage and disruption to ecosystem structure and function. The WSSD and the WPC have both issued a call to action to create many more Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).6

Main target 4 has been developed to address the challenge of developing a fully representative global network of protected areas.7

This target should ensure that all the individual components - ecosystems, species, habitats and landscapes - are also protected, using the detailed ecosystem- and species-related targets set out in Box 3 above.

But even if this target is achieved, the effective conservation of biodiversity cannot be sustained only in isolated areas of protection. Many important ecosystems and valued species will still be found outside strictly protected areas (Categories I-IV), some in Category V and VI protected areas, but mostly in partly transformed environments without any formal protection. Furthermore, few protected areas will ever be large enough to include entire ecosystems, and all protected areas - however big - will be affected by developments beyond their borders. The areas of land and water that adjoin - and are functionally-linked with - protected areas often occur across national boundaries with different legal systems and governance.

Yet many protected areas are cut off from the surrounding environment, where land uses and economic activities are planned without regard to the effect on the protected area, ignoring the movement of species, nutrients and other environmental flows across the its boundary. To address this, an ecosystem or landscape-scale approach to protected-areas planning is needed. This requires a conceptual move from protected areas as 'islands' to protected areas as parts of 'networks'. It also means setting protected areas within a wider matrix of ecosystem-based, environmentally sensitive land and water management, supported by the mainstreaming of environmental considerations into various areas of public policy. This is the ecosystem approach advocated under the CBD. There are many good regional and national examples of such initiatives. These can be used as models of good practice when building new links and improving existing ones.8

Achieving main targets 4 and 5 requires a systematic, scientifically based approach to defining spatial units (ecosystems, ecoregions and bioregions) and identifying key factors (e.g. scarcity, rarity, vulnerability and threat levels). It also needs to take account of the disruptive effect of climate change and its consequences. These will affect the ecological character of many protected areas, rendering some of them ineffective, and requiring adaptive management actions (such as supplementary and substitute areas, and transfer and translocation of species and habitats).

The following actions are designed to achieve both main targets 4 and 5.

International action

• Foster an integrated approach to planning systems of protected areas. This should use the full range of IUCN protected-area management categories, provide for in situ conservation of species and habitats at all scales, promote linkages among terrestrial, coastal and marine areas where possible, and recognize the importance of all stakeholders in meeting this challenge.
• Stimulate intergovernmental action across all continents and oceans for establishing protected areas in places of highest biodiversity, focusing on those species and habitats that are poorly represented in current protected areas, those that face the greatest threat, and those that contribute to performing particularly important ecosystem functions.
• Give priority to freshwater systems, grasslands, tropical dry forests, regional seas, polar regions and the High Seas. Species groups requiring particular attention are plants (including lower plants, lichens and fungi) and fish (including sharks).
• Use and link intergovernmental accords, treaties, conventions and other international instruments, for example the World Heritage Convention and the CBD. In the context of the marine environment, use the Jakarta Mandate of the CBD and appropriate elements of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UN-FSA) and measures under the Antarctic treaty system.
• Develop a linked, coordinated and consistent system of management on the High Seas, including protected areas, involving international collaboration amongst Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. This should be developed with parallel and complementary initiatives in coastal waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) seas.
• Assess the global, regional and national impacts of climate change on protected areas, so as to identify the appropriate location, size and design of protected areas in a warmer world.
• Create new - and promote existing - transboundary protected areas for communities separated by national borders, including corridors of connectivity for mobile indigenous peoples who have traditionally migrated across borders.

Regional action

• Supporting target: agree and establish by 2010, within the framework of regional environmental conventions and protocols and under the jurisdiction of the authorities responsible for implementing these agreements, representative systems of protected areas (taking account of the ecosystem- and species-related targets in Box 3 above).
• Consider the establishment of new agreements to provide frameworks for international environmental cooperation among countries where there are no existing regional environmental conventions/protocols, giving priority to transboundary cooperation in the case of regional seas, mountain chains and shared watersheds/river basins.
• Take intergovernmental action to develop major linkages, strategies and actions across international boundaries, to link protected areas with the surrounding land and sea, and to designate networks of sites used by migratory species. Priority should be given to major natural systems such as river basins and corridors, mountain chains, coastal zones, shelf seas, the High Seas and polar regions; as well as to those wide-ranging migratory species for which protected-area measures alone will not suffice.
• Link terrestrial and/or marine protected areas across international and intra-national boundaries to achieve complementary aims and management actions.
• Support regional integration actions that will promote the harmonization of national policies and legislation in the management of protected areas.

National and local action

• Develop an overall plan for its protected areas, within a framework that is based on biogeographical regions and in consultation with all relevant constituencies. The supporting target should be to fill gaps (including biodiversity hotspots and under-represented bioregions) in a representative national system of protected areas by 2010.
• Taking account of environmental, social, cultural and economic linkages, and in consultation with all relevant constituencies including adjacent jurisdictions, review:
  
  • the scope and need for boundary changes, including the expansion of protected areas beyond existing boundaries;
  • zoning measures within and on the edge of protected areas; and
  • frameworks for connectivity, such as ecological and social networks, ecological corridors and freshwater flows.
• Restore ecological processes in degraded areas, both within protected areas and in their surrounding landscapes, so as to ensure the ecological integrity of protected areas.
• In partnership with stakeholders (particularly indigenous and local communities affected by, or interested in conservation initiatives) examine how innovative, traditional/customary and other types of governance can be recognized, harmonized and connected within an overall protected area system.
• Adopt a policy framework and incentives that encourage the active participation of local communities in biodiversity stewardship.
• Adapt protected area and community conserved area management to the special needs of mobile communities, including protecting their seasonal or temporary use rights, preserving the integrity of their migratory routes or corridors, and supporting mobile use where it can achieve conservation objectives.
• Coordinate the above with national adaptation plans under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), so as to ensure that adaptation plans for protected areas are in place.

IUCN-led action on completing the system

Action: agree a revised global scheme of biogeographical subdivisions as a basis for reviewing gaps in the coverage of protected areas (including World Heritage Sites).
Lead: World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Building the Global System Theme.

Action: establish a task force within WCPA on conservation planning to guide countries in the achievement of protected area targets.
Lead: IUCN WCPA Global Steering Committee.

Action: provide assessments of the significance of major global changes, including climate, on the identification and management of protected areas.
Lead: WCPA.

Action: assist local and regional institutions to understand and implement international instruments and protocols relating to protected areas.
Lead: IUCN Environmental Law Centre.

Action: produce and disseminate general guidance on effective legal mechanisms for the establishment and management of protected areas and provide specific advice on request.
Lead: IUCN Commission on Environmental Law (CEL).

Action: lead collaborative efforts - internationally, regionally and nationally - in examining the current system of representation, identifying gaps and making recommendations to appropriate authorities. Special attention should be given to freshwater systems, grasslands, regional seas, the high seas, and polar regions, as well as the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.
Lead: WCPA Building the Global System Theme.

Action: develop an open reporting system on the global distribution, extent and status of marine protected areas, involving wide information dissemination, and encouraging international participation and feedback.
Lead: WCPA working through the WDPA and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Action: encourage, and contribute knowledge to, the establishment of marine protected areas in the Antarctic region.
Lead: WCPA.

IUCN-led action on linkages

Action: encourage the development of programmes for linkages in all continents, especially across international boundaries, using networks of different categories of protected areas, buffers and connecting corridors, for example in the marine environment, basins and mountain chains, and along important migratory paths (e.g. the East Asian Flyway).
Lead: WCPA Regions and proposed new WCPA/CEESP/CEL Task Force on Governance.

Action: compile and disseminate information on methods of linking protected areas with surrounding landscape and seascape.
Lead: WCPA/Commission on Ecosystem Management joint Task Force.

Action: support the establishment of a Global Transboundary Protected Areas Initiative.
Lead: Secretariat and WCPA Task Force on Transboundary Protected Areas.

Action: promote the establishment of transboundary protected areas and Parks for Peace in all continents and oceans.
Lead: WCPA Regions supported by WCPA Task Force on Transboundary Protected Areas.

Action: support the examination of protected area boundaries where these restrict the achievement of biodiversity objectives.
Lead: WCPA Regions.

IUCN-led action on protected area categorization9

Action: establish a new WCPA task force on the IUCN system of Management Categories for Protected Areas.
Lead: WCPA.

Action: encourage the full use of the IUCN management categories for protected areas in all IUCN work on protected area systems.
Lead: WCPA Management Effectiveness Theme and new Task Force on Categories.

Action: prepare an updated version of the 1994 IUCN Protected Areas Management Categories guidance. This should include a better reflection of the interdependence of cultural and natural assets, and of various governance models (including community conserved areas, related types of natural resource protection and management, and indigenous-owned, designated and managed protected areas).
Lead: new WCPA Task Force on Categories.

Action: develop programmes on: (i) capacity building to improve understanding of the categories system, and (ii) on research and monitoring on the impact of the system.
Lead: new WCPA Task Force on Categories.

Action: before the compilation of the next UN List of Protected Areas, establish protected area category verification and certification systems and trial these in WCPA Regions, especially Europe, leading to a proposal for a protocol for the verification of protected areas in relation to the IUCN management categories.
Lead: new WCPA Task Force on Categories and WCPA Europe.

Action: consider revising the definition of a marine protected area in order to facilitate better reporting; this should consider the exclusion of coastal/intertidal sites if these do not include sub-tidal water. Any new definition should be presented at the next World Conservation Congress.
Lead: WCPA Marine Theme with the new WCPA Task Force on Categories.

Action: update the WDPA to include all sites that meet the IUCN definition of a protected area, regardless of governance responsibility.
Lead: WCPA working through the global consortium of the WDPA and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Outcome 4:
There are effectively managed protected areas, with reliable reporting on their management

Completing the global system of protected areas will not be sufficient. It has to be accompanied by improvements in the health of protected areas and in the capacity to manage them effectively. Some progress has been made through the development of the WCPA framework and associated systems on management effectiveness. But, in many places, monitoring and evaluation systems need to be adopted and implemented. Elsewhere, they need to be more comprehensive, participatory and affordable and the results used to inform changes to plans and management. In addition, scientific and other technical research and investigation should be undertaken to ensure that there is sufficient knowledge of trends in ecological, environmental, social, cultural and economic indicators to allow informed management decisions to be taken.

Particular attention should be paid to the likely effects of climate change on protected areas and corresponding plans of action should be drawn up and implemented. The value of indigenous and traditional knowledge should be recognized and utilized effectively in participatory management. There is a need for a clearer understanding of how cultural and spiritual values can be fully recognized and appropriately protected alongside natural ones. New protocols are needed to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of management in relation to the IUCN system of management categories for protected areas, and to take on board the increased recognition of cultural and spiritual factors in the effective management of protected areas. The need for improved management effectiveness is addressed in Main Target 6.

At present, managers of protected areas and other primary stakeholders often do not have sufficient knowledge, skills, capabilities and tools to face the challenges of global change. The skills now required to manage protected areas are more specialized and broader than in the past and will be even more demanding in future. It is therefore a priority to strengthen capacities at individual, institutional and societal levels10 - see Main Target 7 below.

International action

• Assess globally, through the CBD process, the effectiveness of protected area management and associated compliance mechanisms, focusing in particular on biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, landscape destruction, the effects of climate change, introduction of disease and other key indicators of the integrity of protected areas.
• Increase, through donor assistance, the capacity of protected area management to undertake effectiveness evaluations.

National action

• Establish quantifiable, verifiable and sustained monitoring and evaluation systems to chart the state of protected areas and their key attributes, as developed by WCPA. This work should be undertaken by national governments and devolved administrations in collaboration with other stakeholders, and the results used to influence planning and management decisions, and assess progress towards agreed targets.
• Make resources available from national government and devolved administrations to enable protected area authorities, including and with the involvement of indigenous and local communities, to implement evaluation systems for improving management effectiveness.
• Establish and implement a legal (or other relevant and appropriate) basis for all protected areas; this work to be undertaken by national governments and devolved administrations in collaboration with other stakeholders.
• Assess the impacts of climate and other significant change on protected areas, and the adequacy of adaptation plans in place. This will require coordination with national adaptation plans under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

Protected area authority action

• " Support the implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems, consistent with the WCPA framework for assessing management effectiveness, that are sustainable and resource-efficient, and that engage other institutions and local communities. Use the results to improve all aspects of management and to ensure that these results are made available to all relevant constituencies.
• Develop human-resources policies and programmes for protected area staff, including recruitment, training and continuing professional and volunteer development programmes and standards to ensure that all the necessary capacity, skills and expertise are available to protected area authorities.
• Develop similar programmes for other relevant constituencies so that assessments can be undertaken to appropriate standards.
• Ensure that those engaged in protected area management use a wide range of knowledge and information from scientific, management, technical, community and traditional sources.
• Develop programmes for generating baseline data through protected area surveys.
• Encourage transparency and accountability through the establishment of clear systems of reporting, auditing and accounting for each protected area.
• Ensure that in regions affected by HIV/AIDS, protected area management includes HIV/AIDS education and awareness/prevention programmes for staff and local communities, and provide practical assistance to those affected where possible.
• Develop participatory methods of accreditation/competency evaluation for use by public, private, indigenous and local community organizations in relation to the management of protected areas, including those community conserved areas that meet the IUCN and CBD definitions of a protected area.

IUCN-led action on monitoring and evaluation systems

Action: make available participatory decision-support tools for monitoring and evaluation systems (including key performance indicators), and promote their use in improving protected area management effectiveness by all stakeholders.
Lead: WCPA Improving Management Effectiveness Theme, with CEESP/CEL joint task force on Governance, and Theme on Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas(TILCEPA).

Action: establish and disseminate a protocol on participatory evaluation systems, supported by case studies of effective collaborative approaches.
Lead: WCPA Improving Management Effectiveness Theme with CEESP/CEL joint task force on Governance and TILCEPA.

Action: provide guidance in selection of participation evaluation systems and/or undertake reviews of evaluation systems for protected area agencies, on request and subject to availability of relevant experts and necessary resources.
Lead: WCPA Regions with CEESP/CEL joint task force on Governance and TILCEPA.

International action

• Promote the development of an inventory and database of all institutions in the world specialising in training and capacity building for protected areas. The database should also include the main learning support materials useful for protected area management.
• Establish and strengthen an international network of training organizations, regional centres of excellence and others involved in capacity building.
• Promote measures specifically addressed to higher-level decision makers to improve their understanding of the environmental, economical, cultural and social values and benefits of protected areas.
• Improve opportunities for non-conventional learning (distance education, learning networks, practical on-the-job training etc).

National action

• Develop and implement national strategies and guidelines to ensure adequate capacity building for all protected areas stakeholders. Such strategies should include permanent training programmes and specific actions to promote participatory processes, communication, education and public awareness.