Recommendation 01
Strengthening Institutional and Societal Capacities for Protected Area Management in the 21st Century

During the 21st Century pressure on protected areas will increase as a result of such global change issues as:

- Demographic shifts, population increases in urban areas; unsustainable consumption patterns and widespread poverty impacting on environmental services;

- Greater demands for production of goods and services from PAs;

- Development of inappropriate infrastructure, climate change, and invasion of exotic species;

- Fragmentation of natural habitats;

- Over fishing and dramatic collapse of marine fisheries and coral reefs and coastal and freshwater systems;

- Decreasing supplies of fresh water;

- Increasing threats to the welfare and safety of PA staff;

- Technological advances, especially in relation to access to and communication of information;

- Consolidation and expansion of democratization, decentralization, "deconcentration" and expanded public participation processes; and

- International assistance flows that focus primarily on social needs of impoverished;

Current management structures for protected areas were designed under different conditions and are not necessarily able to adapt to these new pressures. Conservation will only succeed if we can build learning institutions, organizations, and networks and enable conservation practitioners to identify and solve their own problems and take advantage of opportunities. In particular, we need to empower all stakeholders to fulfill their role in protected area management.

Capacity development at the institutional and societal level must include:

- Establishing and supporting institutions with adequate resources to implement plans and strategies for PA management; and

- Developing the enabling environment through sound legal and policy frameworks and through societal recognition of the benefits of protected areas and the value of the goods and services they provide.

In light of these points, the PARTICIPANTS in Stream on Capacity Building: Developing the Capacity to Manage at the Vth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa (8-17 September 2003):

1. RECOMMEND that governments, inter-governmental organizations, NGOs, local communities and civil society:

a. RAISE awareness of the value of protected areas and the benefits they provide to society and enhance general commitment to support Protected Areas;

b. ADJUST current policies, laws, planning and management instruments, and institutional frameworks, to increase capacity for protected management at all levels. Specifically,

i. Promote robust and complementary national, state, regional, municipal, community, and private protected area systems;

ii. Integrate conservation objectives into land /sea use and regional and sectoral planning at all levels and integrate protected areas planning and management into the wider land and seascape;

iii. Promote, coordinate and support systematic applied social, economic, political and biophysical scientific research related to identified needs and priorities, informing protected area management and activities aimed at conserving, monitoring, and using biodiversity in a sustainable manner in the face of rapid global change;

iv. Build coherent national frameworks for conservation of biodiversity and protected areas and harmonize sectoral policies and laws with conservation policies and laws at the constitutional level;

v. Establish mechanisms to harmonize policies and efforts among government agencies and other civil society organizations responsible for conservation and sustainable development;

vi. Elaborate and implement National Strategic Plans for Protected Area Systems and appropriate strategic and operational planning instruments for each protected area;

vii. Ensure that the staff of protected areas and their management bodies have sufficient decision making authority to achieve the management and conservation objectives of protected area systems;

viii. Encourage and support the establishment of new protected areas and of co-management agreements by and between local, regional and national governments, non-governmental entities, the private sector, local and indigenous communities and other stakeholders;

ix. Ensure that protected area management bodies (including decentralized and devolved statutory authorities, groups engaged in co-management and community based management) have the skills, knowledge and abilities to take on these responsibilities;

x. Adopt mechanisms to enable representation and participation of all protected area stakeholders at national, regional and local levels;

xi. Establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms based on protected area objectives and using compatible methods, indicators and site specific standards to ensure management effectiveness and assure biological and cultural integrity;

2. PROMOTE local ownership and sustainability of capacity development programmes by ensuring that:

a. Protected Area institutions maintain core funding for new and continuing capacity development as part of their ongoing business plans;

b. Capacity development programmes are designed and conducted by the beneficiaries themselves in collaboration with government at all levels, partnership, international agencies, NGOs and other relevant bodies, based on mutually agreed needs and priorities.

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