IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)

The Global Study into management effectiveness evaluation was conducted between late 2005 and 2007. 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.

In this supplementary report, we summarise a selection of methodologies that have been used in different regions around the world for different purposes. References are given wherever possible for the reader to find more details where desired. However, some of the methodologies were not published and information on them is difficult to obtain.

These guidelines address one of the most critical issues which protected area planners and managers face in the East Asia region: obtaining the funds needed to ensure the survival and success of protected areas. The publication explains how protected areas can generate more finance to help meet their needs, and contains brief case studies. It also includes a list of potential funding sources in the region.

This publication provides a collection of material useful to planners and managers of parks and protected areas in East Asia. It has been designed to help them think about the influx of tourism to natural protected areas, and to urge them to consciously plan for management of the interactions of tourists and the natural and cultural environment.

The link between protected areas and tourism is as old as the history of protected areas. Though the relationship is complex and sometimes adversarial, tourism is always a critical component to consider in the establishment and management of protected areas. These guidelines aim to build an understanding of protected area tourism, and its management. They provide both a theoretical structure and practical guidelines for managers.

A Management Plan is a document which sets out the management approach and goals, together with a framework for decision making, to apply in a specific protected area over a given period of time. Critical to the plan is the widest possible consultation with stakeholders and the development of objectives that can be agreed and adhered to by all who have an interest in the use and ongoing survival of the area concerned.

A system plan is the design of a total reserve system covering the full range of ecosystems and communities found in a particular country, identifying the range of purposes of protected areas and the relationships among the system components (i.e. individual areas, protected areas and other land uses), and different sectors and levels of society.

In an era of climate change, deforestation and massive habitat loss, we can no longer rely on parks and protected areas as isolated 'islands of wilderness' to conserve and protect vital biodiversity. Increasing connections are being considered and made between protected areas and 'connectivity' thinking has started to expand to the regional and even the continental scale to match the challenges of conserving biodiversity in the face of global environmental change.