Conservation Tool

IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas

The IUCN Green List is a global campaign for successful nature conservation. At its heart is the Green List Sustainability Standard that provides a global benchmark  for how to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century. The IUCN Green List offers locally relevant expert guidance to help achieve fair and effective nature conservation results in protected and conserved areas. It can help guarantee that wildlife and ecosystems can survive, thrive and bring value to communities everywhere.

Why do we need a ‘Green List’?

The future of life on Earth depends on our efforts to nurture and protect nature. On land and in the seas, the impacts of population growth, industrialisation, production and consumption patterns are pushing our planet’s boundaries to the limit. We are threatening our very existence through an accelerated loss of ecosystems, wild species and natural processes. We are degrading terrestrial and marine ecosystems beyond recovery, and we are only just beginning to see the real impacts of the climate crisis.

However, we can hope for change, and dream of a greener future. There is already a strong community of men and women fighting against environmental loss in and around protected and conserved natural areas worldwide. They live in remote and wild areas, in the countryside, in cities, in forests, mountains and savannahs, along our coasts and on islands, and out into the seas and oceans.

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77 certified sites

Description

As of June 2022, this includes 61 Green Listed sites globally, of which around 1 out of every 7 are also World Heritage sites.

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Over 60 countries

Description

Currently host over 600 protected and conserved areas that are engaged in the IUCN Green List community (approximate numbers of formally and informally registered sites and networks of sites)

What is a ‘Green Listed’ site?

A protected or conserved area that reaches the IUCN Green List Standard is certified and recognised as achieving ongoing results for people and nature in a fair and effective way. Any site can join, and work its way towards achieving verified success, and then maintain the Standard or further improve .

Any protected and conserved area that gains ‘Green List’ status demonstrates:

  • Respect: for the local community through fair and meaningful engagement of rights-holders and stakeholders
  • Design: planning that identifies the needs to secure  the important values of the area
  • Effective management: monitoring of the status of these important values
  • Successful conservation results: for nature and for people
  • Clear contribution: to climate change responses, health and well-being and other challenges

Measuring success in more than just size

IUCN, along with the United Nations Environment  – World Conservation Monitoring Centre, maintains a global database of protected and conserved areas. This database, accessible through Protected Planet, lists about 261,766 officially recognised protected areas, covering over 15% of the of the earth’s land surface and 7.4% of the world’s oceans. This figure is only the official record; there are many more conserved areas, such as indigenous peoples’ territories and privately conserved wild areas. IUCN is working to identify and recognise  these areas and to bring their achievements into the global community of protected and conserved areas.

Yet, to address the mounting challenges to nature, and achieve a positive foundation for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, we need more than percentages and hectares or acres on a map. We need these conserved  areas to be vital signs of life. We need them to offer hope, regeneration, and good health. We depend on them for clean air, fresh water and rainfall, pollination, and spiritual sanctuary to people all over the world, in urban and in rural communities.

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IUCN

IUCN Green List Standard

At the heart of the IUCN Green List initiative is a globally applicable Standard. It provides an international benchmark for quality that motivates improved performance and achievement of conservation objectives. The seventeen criteria collectively describe the efforts needed to fully achieve the global Sustainability Standard and all must be achieved for green-listing. The indicators can be adapted to suit the local context.

The Green List Panel

The Green List Panel makes decisions on which sites meet the requirements of the IUCN Green List Standard and are included in the IUCN Green List.  It considers nominations for the listing of sites following a full assessment, technical review and process review, on the recommendations of the Expert Assessment Groups (EAGL) in each country or jurisdiction where the Green List Standard is being applied.

Learn about the newly-appointed Green List Panel here.

Explore the IUCN Green List

Sites on the IUCN Green List are certified as being effectively managed and fairly governed, with long-term positive impacts on people and nature.

Every five years, they are evaluated against a set of demanding criteria defined by the IUCN Green List Standard. These criteria include the quality of protection of natural values and the effectiveness of actions against threats.

Explore the map right or full list of sites below.

IUCN Green List Map

IUCN Green List Sites Opens in the same window Opens in a new window