IUCN WCPA Technical Note 8: Role of Protected Areas in Climate Change Mitigation and Biodiversity Conservation

There is general consensus that biodiversity loss and climate change are twin crises requiring integrated, comprehensive and holistic approaches.  As aptly articulated by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, the twin global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss have to be tackled in a more coordinated manner: “climate change threatens to undermine all efforts to conserve and sustainably manage biodiversity and [that] nature itself offers some of the most effective solutions to avert the worst impacts of a warming planet”. The creation of new Protected areas (PAs), the expansion of existing ones, protecting and establishing conservation corridors that connect PAs, and better PA management are the first and most effective policy tools to address these global crises.