Case studies

This publication proposes a framework for assessing management effectiveness, recognising the need for a variety of responses depending on needs and resources. It aims to help all those who wish to assess protected areas, both in suggesting what needs to be done and in providing some guidelines. It includes six practical case studies from Australia, the Congo Basin, Central America, South America and the USA

This guide illustrates the potential for using valuation as a tool for diversifying the funding structure for protected areas and for providing information about stakeholders which is crucial for effective management.

The Pangani River Basin covers an area of about 43,650 km2, mostly in Tanzania with approximately 5% in Kenya. The Basin contains a wide array of resources of which water and arable land are arguably the most important to its 3.7 million Tanzanian inhabitants. There is a diversity of interests in the Basin, and these are able to wield various degrees of power as they seek to lay claim to its resources.

This book tells the story of times past, when wetlands were considered as wastelands and decision makers and managers were unaware of their benefits, a time when the adverse impacts of hydropower and irrigation schemes on ecosystems and people downstream seemed unimportant. Today wetland ecosystems are viewed as essential elements in integrated river basin planning, which draws upon the most appropriate modern science and traditional knowledge.

IUCN's 5th World Parks Congress (2003) concluded that parks should not exist as unique islands, but need to be planned and managed as an integral part of the broader landscape. Ecological networks provide an operational model for conserving biodiversity that is based on ecological principles and allow a degree of human use of the landscape.