WORLD PARKS CONGRESS OUTPUTS
5th WORLD PARKS CONGRESS
EMERGING ISSUES
Stream 1:
Linkages in the Landscape/Seascape
1. Ecological restoration
Stream 2: Building Broader Support for Protected Areas
2. Building Support for Protected Areas through Site-Based
Planning
3. Disease and Protected Area Management
4. Sustainable Hunting, Fishing and other wildlife issues
Stream 3:
Governance: New ways of working together
5. Private Protected Areas
Stream 5:
Maintaining Protected Areas Now and in the Future
6. Collapse from the inside: Threats to biodiversity and
ecological integrity of protected areas from unsustainable hunting for
subsistence and trade.
7. Management of Invasive Species
Cross-Cutting
Theme: Communities and Equity
8. Gender Equity in the Management and Conservation of Protected
Areas
Cross-Cutting
Theme: Marine
9. Amendment to the IUCN Definition of Marine Protected Areas
10. Moratorium on Deep Sea Trawling
Africa Day
11. HIV/AIDS Pandemic and Conservation
ANNEX 1 : Private Protected Area Action Plan
Stream 1: Linkages in the Landscape/Seascape
1. Ecological restoration
Many protected areas exist as habitat remnants within a matrix of agricultural lands and degraded areas. Some protected areas contain degraded areas within their boundaries. These circumstances mean that the integrity of the ecosystems within these protected areas and the ecological processes that sustain them are threatened. These changes also mean that communities living in area around these protected areas are no longer able to get many of the goods and resources upon which they previously depended.
Ecological restoration offers a means by which these problems may be addressed. It can involve a variety of approaches differing in the extent to which biodiversity is recovered, the rate at which recovery takes place and the extent to which various goods and services are supplied. These various approaches differ in cost and can include relatively low cost approaches (which may involve long recovery times) as well as more costly approaches (which may have faster recovery periods).
Many landscapes will require a combination of these various approaches depending on the ecological and socio-economic circumstance prevailing at different localities within the landscape. Optimising biodiversity and functional outcomes will require trade-offs, the nature of which will be determined by the stakeholders present.
Stream 2: Building Broader Support for Protected Areas
2. Building Support for Protected Areas through Site-Based Planning
Participants in the workshop on Building Support for Protected Areas through Site-Based Planning restate their fundamental objection to destructive industrial practices including logging, mining, and oil and gas exploration and production in protected areas, and seek:
- The strengthening of legislation and enforcement of environmental impact assessment procedures
- That greater capacity be provided to communities to participate in equitable benefit sharing
- That international NGOs, donors etc be mindful of community aspirations and allow for longer-term funding to ensure sustainable community participation in project development and implementation.
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3. Disease and Protected Area Management
The health of wildlife, domestic animals and people are inextricably linked.
Small improvements in the health of domestic and wild animals and thus their productivity can lead to dramatic improvements in human livelihoods and thus the reduction of poverty.
Alien invasive pathogens should be addressed with vigor equal to that devoted to addressing more 'visible' alien invasive species.
The role of disease in protected areas and the land-use matrix within which they are embedded must be recognized and addressed within the context of protected area and landscape-level planning and management.
Animal and human health-based indicators may reveal perturbations to natural systems not detectable by more commonly employed methodologies, thus improving the quantitative evaluation of trends in a protected area's health and resilience.
4. Sustainable Hunting, Fishing and other wildlife issues
Participants of Session 6 "Hunting and Fishing" of the Workshop entitled Building Support from New Constituencies in Stream II are concerned that the Congress does not recognize the importance of appropriate forms of wildlife utilisation to generate revenues for conservation. Instead overemphasis is placed on non-sustainable external funding.
Therefore, we [request] that IUCN - WCPA to take account of this emerging issue[*] when developing their future work programme and/or ensuring that it is addressed by other appropriate units in the IUCN.
Sustainable hunting and fishing (including trophy and subsistence hunting) and other wildlife uses contribute to biodiversity conservation by:
- Providing finance for the management of protected and non-protected natural areas
- Generating income and benefits for local communities and landowners
- Creating strong incentives to manage and conserve wildlife and its habitats
- Offering indigenous people economic opportunities, whilst retaining rights, knowledge systems and traditions
In this context, the IUCN [should] identify best practices of sustainable hunting and fishing and assist in their dissemination and implementation.
NOTE 1: Supported by the FAO
Stream 3: Governance: New ways of working together
5. Private Protected Areas
Privately owned protected areas continue their quiet proliferation throughout much of the world. Despite this expansion, little is known about them. Preliminary evidence suggests that private parks number in the thousands and protect several million hectares of biologically important habitat. They serve as increasingly important components of national conservation strategies. In a time when many governments are slowing the rate at which they establish new protected areas, the private conservation sector continues its rapid growth. Conservationists need to examine this trend closely, assessing its overall scope and direction, and determining ways maximise its strengths while minimising its weaknesses.
In Eastern and Southern Africa, privately owned lands play a particularly important role in conserving critical biodiversity. Private protected areas in Southern Africa alone protect millions of ecological important areas, especially in critical buffer zones and corridor areas.
Annex I (English only) at the end of this section contains what may be the world's first Private Protected Area Action Plan. The Action Plan summarizes key aspects of the private protected area sector and suggested important next steps in the evolution of this promising conservation tool.
Stream 5: Maintaining Protected Areas Now and in the Future
6. Collapse from the inside: Threats to biodiversity and ecological integrity of protected areas from unsustainable hunting for subsistence and trade.
Hunting and commercial trade in wildlife [*2] from many protected areas across the tropics and sub-tropics are rapidly increasing, unsustainable, and many aspects are illegal. Demand for wildlife is increasing rapidly due to increases in the number of consumers, increasing buying power amongst urban consumers, and increasing commercialization of the hunt.
The ability to meet the demand is facilitated by increased access to protected areas, and greatly improved hunting technologies. Supply of wildlife both inside and outside protected areas is diminishing due to unsustainable hunting and decreasing areas of habitat; this is often reflected by an increase in price. The problem is exacerbated by inadequate management capacity (personnel, training, infrastructure and budgets), whether the management authorities are the local communities, governments or other agencies. An unintended consequence of some international and national development programmes and resource extraction activities has contributed to the magnitude of the problem, as have political instability and deteriorating economic conditions in many tropical countries.
Hence:
1. Unsustainable hunting and wildlife trade pose significant immediate threats to wildlife populations in many protected areas throughout the tropics, especially in systems where wildlife productivity is low;
2. A wide range of species, even those not currently identified as threatened, are at risk of local extinction as a result of unsustainable hunting across a significant proportion of protected areas across the tropics;
3. The loss of wildlife from protected areas due to unsustainable hunting has adverse effects on the biodiversity and ecological functioning of those areas, and hence of their conservation role;
4. Such loss often has adverse impacts on rural peoples living in and around protected areas, many of whom depend on wildlife for their livelihoods. The people most affected are often the poorest, and most marginalized sectors of society;
5. Solutions must be scientifically based, and specific to the local biological, social and political conditions;
6. Unsustainable hunting can be addressed either by restricting hunting to certain species and/or zones, or by providing alternative incentives for protection, e.g., through ecotourism, or safari hunting of certain species;
7. Commercial wildlife trade must be curtailed because it is extirpating wildlife from many protected areas throughout the tropics and sub-tropics;
8. Participation of local communities is crucial to seek solutions most likely to succeed in conserving wildlife, and in meeting peoples' subsistence and economic needs; and
9. Capacity building of protected area managers is crucial, whether they be local communities, governments or other agencies, to develop and implement strategies to manage hunting in protected areas.
NOTE 2: Defined in this context as terrestrial and semi-terrestrial vertebrates > 2 kg body weight.
7. Management of Invasive Species
Management of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) is a priority issue and must be mainstreamed into all aspects of PA management. The wider audience of protected area managers, stakeholders and governments needs urgently to be made aware of the serious implications for biodiversity, PA conservation and livelihoods that result from lack of recognition of the IAS problem and failure to address it.
Promoting awareness of solutions to the IAS problem and ensuring capacity to implement effective, ecosystem based methods must be integrated into PA management programs.
In addition to the consideration of benefits beyond boundaries, the impacts flowing into both marine and terrestrial PAs from external sources must be addressed.
Cross-Cutting Theme: Communities and Equity
8. Gender Equity in the Management and Conservation of Protected Areas
The Discussion Group on Gender Equity in the Management and Conservation of Protected Areas taking into account that:
- All major international agreements, meetings and conventions in the last 15 years in relation to conservation and use of natural resources have stated the importance and necessity of gender equity issues for the conservation of biodiversity;
- Men and women often have different needs, access and control to resources, opinions, and priorities, face different constraints, have different aspirations and contribute to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in different ways;
- Achieving gender equity in the management of protected areas requires a gender analysis of resource tenure and use and conservation knowledge and skills;
- Only with a gender perspective can an adequate and applicable understanding of human relationships, environmental processes and ecosystems be constructed;
- There is significant experience and lessons learned that demonstrate women are effective change agents, leaders and natural resource and protected area managers;
- In consonance with good governance and democratic principles, consolidating, expanding and improving the global system of protected areas must respect the rights, interests and concerns of women and men, including their right to participate as equals in decision making regarding protected areas management;
Calls upon governments, multilateral institutions, international conventions, PA agencies, donor agencies, NGOs, indigenous and local communities, research institutes and the private sector, and in particular The World Conservation Union (IUCN) known for its inspirational and leadership for well coordinated and synergistic efforts, to:
1. Ensure that further work towards building comprehensive protected areas systems fully incorporates the rights, responsibilities, interests, aspirations and potential contribution of both women and men;
2. Adopt policies and incentives that require equitable, effective involvement of women and men in decision-making and management of existing and future protected areas;
3. Undertake programmes to develop and strengthen institutional and human capacities for mainstreaming a gender equity perspective for the planning, establishment, and management of protected areas;
4. Develop tools and best practices for the incorporation of gender issues into specific management activities and tasks;
5. Strengthen local women's and men's capacity with new skills for sustainable livelihoods and environmental leadership to contribute to conservation; and
6. Monitor and evaluate benefits of gender equity and disseminate lessons learned to managers, policy makers, and community members.
Cross-Cutting Theme: Marine
9. Amendment to the IUCN Definition of Marine Protected Areas
In order to better refine reporting on marine protected areas, it would be desirable to reconsider the existing IUCN definition of a marine protected area. In particular to consider the exclusion of coastal/intertidal sites if these do not include subtidal water. This to be discussed in preparation for presentation at the forthcoming World Conservation Congress.
IUCN defines a marine protected area as:
"Any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment [*3]"
GA Resolution, Costa Rica
This definition differs from many others through its inclusion of "intertidal terrain". Under this definition, any terrestrial site that extends as far as the mid-tide mark is a marine protected area. This means that a very large number of sites whose boundaries are set at the coastline are being included in MPA lists and statistics. This has contributed to the lack of good figures on the numbers and sizes of MPAs. With the WSSD target now being implemented, it is important that we are able to get better facts and achieve a broader consensus.
We suggest that a new definition be adopted by IUCN:
"Any area which incorporates subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment"
Such a definition will only exclude sites that do not have subtidal areas. Sites with both subtidal and intertidal water will remain, and it is likely that many areas which are predominantly terrestrial will still be included.
NOTE 3: GA Resolution, Costa Rica
10. Moratorium on Deep Sea
Trawling
The Marine Theme participants, in endorsing WPC Recommendation 5.23 regarding
protection of the high seas, considered the following recommendation as
being of significant importance meriting recognition as an emerging issue.
CALL on the United Nations
General Assembly to consider a resolution on an immediate moratorium on
deep sea trawling in high seas areas with seamounts, cold water coral
reef communities until legally binding international conservation measures
to protect the areas are in place.
Africa Day
11. HIV/AIDS Pandemic and Conservation
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is starting to seriously affect conservation success in Africa, and is likely to have big impacts in next-wave countries such as Russia, China, India and Eastern European countries. It is reducing the biodiversity management capacities of protected area staff, local communities and mobile peoples. It is also resulting in increased and often unsustainable offtake of natural resources and greater poverty, as AIDS-affected households lose salary earners and capacity for heavy agricultural labor.
The conservation community
needs to acknowledge the problem, work to understand conservation impacts
better, and take action to mitigate impacts in affected countries. This
includes promoting of HIV/AIDS prevention in protected area staff and
communities; finding solutions to relieve unsustainable harvesting (e.g.
through non-labor-intensive micro-enterprise to support community livelihoods);
developing HIV/AIDS strategies in protected area authorities; and collaborating
with other sectors including health and agriculture.
ANNEX 1
|
PRIVATE
PROTECTED AREA ACTION PLAN
(13 September 2003 ) WPC Governance Stream,
Parallel Session 2.5 |
Background // Ecological and biological issues // Economic and social issues // Legal and political issues // Recommendations to governements and civil society
Background
This document represents the consensus opinion of participants at the Vth World Parks Congress Session on "Protected Areas Managed by Private Landowners" with respect to the future of privately owned protected areas worldwide. Its purpose is to chart a course for the coming decade that improves and expands biodiversity conservation occurring on privately owned lands. It was adopted by unanimous vote on 13 September 2003.
Definitions: A private protected area (PPA) refers to a land parcel of any size that is:
1) predominantly managed for biodiversity conservation;
2) protected with or without formal government recognition;
3) and is owned or otherwise secured by individuals, communities, corporations or non government organisations.
Recognising that:
Ecological and biological issues
- A great share of global
biodiversity occurs on privately owned lands;
- Private lands represent
an opportunity for significant expansion of the world's network of protected
natural areas;
- Private land holders have
demonstrated a willingness and capacity to protect natural habitat and
endangered species successfully;
- Conservation on private
lands represents an essential and expanding complement to public conservation
efforts by protecting corridors, buffer zones, inholdings, areas underrepresented
in public park systems, and other key components of larger ecosystems
that governments are not protecting for lack of financial resources,
political will, or other reasons;
- Private conservation models,
like publicly protected areas, vary greatly in terms of management objectives,
allowable activities, and level of protection. These may include formally
declared private areas, lands subject to conservation easements, game
ranches, mixed commercial operations based on sustainable use, land
trusts and other options.
- Privately owned protected areas best serve as supplements to, not replacements for, strong public protected area systems.
Economic and social issues
- Private protected areas
provide public goods in conserving biodiversity and natural resources
at comparatively low cost to society.
- The private sector has shown
it can be efficient, accountable and innovative in conserving natural
resources and biodiversity while integrating economic uses in a sustainable
way. Examples include activities such as nature tourism, game ranching,
or harvesting non-timber forest products, which provide revenues that
make private conservation appealing and financially feasible.
- Private lands conservation
may be vulnerable to economic fluctuations caused by changes in policy
at the local, national and international level that increase the profitability
of competing land uses such as agriculture, logging, and ranching.
- Some private land conservation
mechanisms are extremely flexible, and can be used to implement conservation
practices on productive lands in a manner that can attain a broad range
of social and economic benefits.
- That there is an increasing tendency for landholders to form collaborative networks.
Legal and political issues
- That secure property rights
to land and natural resources form an essential foundation for any long-term
conservation strategy, particularly one involving private sector participation
and investment;
- That private landholders
represent an important stakeholder group that can contribute meaningfully
to local, national and international conservation planning efforts;
- That many privately protected
areas are subject to legally binding conditions and restrictions regarding
land use practises, that can ensure their durability and long-term conservation,
including in perpetuity;
- The increasing tendency for multiple private landholders to form collaborative reserves and conservancies that jointly manage large conservation units;
Recommendations to governments and civil society
Rec. 01 // Rec 02 // Rec. 03 // Rec. 04 // Rec. 05 // Rec. 06 // Rec. 07
The international workshop on privately owned parks (Session 2.5 of the Governance Workshop Stream) at the Vth World Parks Congress, in South Africa (8-17 September, 2003), makes the following recommendations to governments and civil society:
1. Strengthen the legal framework for private lands conservation, including through:
Conducting a global assessment of the current legal frameworks for private lands conservation, identifying key gaps in the design, implementation, and evaluation of relevant legislation;
Working to fill existing legal gaps by developing laws, regulations, policies, and programs that support creation of appropriate land use planning regimes, formally declared private protected areas, conservancies, conservation easements and similar instruments, conservation concessions, and other protection mechanisms;
Strengthening the legal security for conservation lands, including the recognition of rightful owners, reform of land tenure laws and improved law enforcement. Secure use rights over land and wildlife are an essential ingredient in any strategy to conserve and encourage long-term investment in wildlife habitat;
Ensuring that the IUCN protected area category system explicitly addresses privately owned protected areas.
2. Strengthen economic incentives for private land conservation, including:
Develop economic incentives for private landowners to adopt private lands conservation practices. These should include property tax exemptions for lands placed in conservation status; payments for the environmental services provided by conservation lands; development of markets for environmental goods and services; purchase or transfer of development rights; and other forms of government financial and technical assistance. In providing incentives, priority should be given to lands that are within publicly protected areas, or have been granted official recognition as private conservation lands;
If not already established, governments should establish environmental trust funds, with donor support, and authorize the use of such funds to support key private lands conservation actors.
3. Strengthen institutional capacity for private lands conservation:
Increase capacity of federal and state governments to authorize and monitor formal private conservation protection efforts, and better integrate private lands conservation actions into their overall conservation strategies. This includes ensuring that even those government agencies whose primary responsibility is not conservation work to support private lands conservation actions (e.g., land reform, tax, and planning agencies);
Identify and remove gaps and overlaps in institutional responsibilities regarding conservation initiatives on private lands;
Improve capacity of local governments to ensure that local registrars properly record private land conservation instruments;
Increase capacity of government judicial systems to enforce private land conservation mechanisms effectively and consistently;
Expand efforts by conservation NGOs and government agencies to:
1) develop private lands conservation tools;
2) identify private lands conservation priorities;
3) establish and maintain private conservation areas; and
4) provide technical assistance to conservation-minded landowners;
4. Improve and expand education and training opportunities for private lands conservation, including:
Design, develop, deliver, and evaluate a comprehensive portfolio of education and training opportunities for key sectors involved in private lands conservation. Target audience includes government parks agencies, conservation NGOs, commercial entities, registrars, judges, prosecutors, and private and community landowners. Topics range from general capacity-building to the application of detailed technical issues and procedures. Delivery formats will include short courses, field work, various forms of workshops, internships and fellowships, and formal academic education programs.
5. Increase public-private collaboration in the management and conservation of protected lands:
Integrate private lands conservation efforts into public conservation strategies. This includes:
a. increasing overall collaboration between public and private conservation sectors, including communicating available programs and conservation options;
b. maximising protection of ecosystems inadequately represented among public protected areas;
c. enhancing public protected areas by protecting buffer zones and conservation corridors; and
d. improving the management of privately owned lands within "mixed" public/private protected areas.
6. Promote community involvement and sustainable development through privately owned protected areas:
Increase and deepen the transfer of technology, knowledge and experience between private landowners and other stakeholders.
Improve and promote cooperation between private landowners and other stakeholders, particularly regarding complementary land uses.
7. Create information networks, including:
Establish networks of conservation owners and other stakeholders for the purpose of sharing information, knowledge, and expertise on a regional, national, and international basis;
Conduct a global inventory of privately conserved lands that characterises their overall contribution to protecting natural habitat, endangered species and cultural resources;
Conduct a global analysis on the economics of private lands conservation, including financial sustainability, contribution to national economies, job creation, and other economic and social costs and benefits;
Identify, then work to remove, perverse economic incentives at the regional, national and international level that distort the market and promote unsustainable land use practices (e.g., subsidies for unsustainable agricultural practices);
Investigate the myriad social issues surrounding privately owned protected areas worldwide, including levels of social acceptance and costs and benefits to local communities.