IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)

IUCN’s Protected Areas Management Categories, which classify protected areas according to their management objectives, are today accepted as the benchmark for defining, recording and classifying protected areas.They are recognized by international bodies such as the United Nations as well as many national governments. As a result, they are increasingly being incorporated into government legislation.

This publication aims to further raise awareness about the value of transboundary conservation, highlighting the many benefits transboundary cooperation generates, while not neglecting the challenges and problems parties encounter when they engage in transboundary initiatives.

This paper outlines the progress of the East Asian region towards the goals adopted in the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) and in the implementation of the Regional Action Plan for the Protected Areas of East Asia (RAP); findings of which arose from the East Asia workshop on implementation of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (CBD PoWPA), the ‘East Asia workshop’.

Des zones importantes pour la conservation des oiseaux ainsi que des zones importantes pour les plantes ont déjà été identifiées dans plus de 170 pays. L’approche des Zones clés de la biodiversité se base sur le travail accompli jusqu’à ce jour, dans le but de prodiguer des conseils pratiques aux gouvernements dans l’identification des cites qui doivent être protégés pour assurer l’avenir à la fois de la biodiversité et de l’humanité.

The purpose of these guidelines is to update and expand the original guidelines on protected areas legislation published in 1980 and to reflect new developments and emerging issues. These developments include significant advances in international environmental law, and an improved scientific understanding of the role of protected areas in nature conservation, including conserving biodiversity, maintaining ecosystem functions and supporting sustainable development.

Un plan de gestion est un document qui établit l'approche de la gestion et ses objectifs et qui comprend aussi un cadre pour prendre des décisions, à appliquer dans l'aire protégée pendant une période donnée. Il est désormais critique pour la planification des aires protégées de consulter le plus grand nombre possible de parties prenantes et de développer des objectifs que peuvent accepter et adopter tous ceux qui ont un intérêt dans l'utilisation et la survie de l'aire concernée.

The Global Study into management effectiveness evaluation was conducted between late 2005 and 2010. In cooperation with many people across the world, we aimed to strengthen the management of protected areas by compiling the existing work on management effectiveness evaluation, reviewing methodologies, finding patterns and common themes in evaluation results, and investigating the most important factors leading to effective management.

Qualified, competent and committed staff are central to the success of protected areas. Training of protected area (PA) staff is more and more recognized as a vital component of efficient protected area management. As well as being an essential tool at local, regional and national levels, capacity building for PAs now has a strong international context and is being embedded into major global conventions and PA-related decisions.

This Resource Manual represents IUCN’s advice to States Parties which are considering nominating a natural or mixed property for World Heritage status. Preparing a World Heritage nomination is not a simple task and interested parties are encouraged to carefully analyse the situation, taking the time needed to ensure a sound process that is closely linked to ensuring effective management of the property and cooperation with communities and stakeholders.