Case studies

For billions of people throughout the world – especially the poorest – wetlands are critical for livelihoods. Wetlands are also home to an enormous diversity of wildlife, much of it unique to freshwater habitats. Traditional separate biodiversity and livelihood assessment and economic valuation fails to present the full value of a wetland in the face of alternative wetland uses, and as a result wetlands are lost through development activities.

Live-capture, holding in captivity and export of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins from the Solomon Islands began in 2003. These activities stimulated global interest and generated concern about the potential conservation implications. This report is based on a workshop on the assessment of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), with the Solomon Islands as a case study, that took place from 21–23 August 2008 in Apia, Samoa.

Governance for sustainability is defined as the set of written and unwritten rules that link ecological citizenship with institutions and norms of governance. It is a complex topic because it addresses the three issues of globalization, democracy and sustainability. No form of governance can succeed if there is no common bond between those who govern and those who are being governed.

IUCN’s Strengthening Voices for Better Choices (SVBC) project aims to promote the adoption of improved forest governance arrangements in Viet Nam and five other tropical forest countries in Asia, Africa and South America. This summary report is an output of a larger national study conducted by SVBC in Viet Nam.

All people, regardless of where they live, depend upon the existence of healthy marine ecosystems. While the role that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can play in promoting the health of the oceans and seas has been widely acknowledged, progress on building a network of MPAs has been slow to date. This can be in part explained by the fact that MPAs involve a host of issues that go much further than conservation alone.

This special issue Global Re-introduction Perspectives provides 62 case-studies covering invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and plants. The case-studies have been presented in an organized format in the following order Introduction, Goals, Success Indicators, Project Summary, Major Difficulties Faced, Major Lessons Learned, Success of Project with reasons for success or failure. These case-studies are vividly illustrated with color photographs.

The Framework for management effectiveness developed by the IUCN World Commission for Protected Areas was published in the first version of this Best Practice Guideline. It is further explained and interpreted, although not substantially altered, in this version. A number of key guidelines for good practice in evaluation are presented from many practitioners around the world, and important needs and directions for the future are identified.

This technical report uses the framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to extend awareness on the value of coastal ecosystems, their products and services for human well-being (i.e. livelihood security and development benefits) and shows how economic valuation of coastal ecosystem services can be a valuable tool for conservation managers and development decision-makers. It presents case studies from Sri Lanka and Thailand.