IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), Working Group on Cave and Karst Protection

These guidelines provide an update and expansion of the original Guidelines for Cave and Karst Protection, published in 1997. The original guidelines were primarily concerned with geoheritage, and while this remains an important consideration in this second edition, it also covers the biological issues involved in cave and karst conservation.

Cave and karst landforms are distributed widely around the world. They have many values and are an integral component of the world's biodiversity. Some are habitats for a wide range of endemic species of flora and fauna, while others house rare and endangered species. Still others are the sources of rare minerals and some are important for resources such as groundwater, while some are venerated as sites of religious, spiritual and cultural importance.