Guidelines

Since publication of the 2015 Great Ape Health Guidelines, great ape tourism has continued to gain in popularity, and landscape conversion continues on a steep trajectory. In addition, there has been a tremendous amount of new scientific research on pathogens that infect wild great apes. Furthermore, the world experienced epidemics of Ebola (in West Africa from 2014–2016 and in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2018–2020) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2023).

Les sociétés du monde entier exploitent les espèces sauvages, dans une mesure plus ou moins grande, pour l’alimentation, les matériaux de construction, les soins de santé, les médicaments, la lutte contre les parasites, l’ornementation, générer des revenus, les loisirs, ainsi qu’à des fins culturelles et spirituelles.

These guidelines offer both a call for change and general guidance for users. The following five guidelines, adapted from the ten guiding principles for rewilding (Carver et al., 2021), provide a foundation for understanding and taking action to prevent further losses in nature, promote the recovery of biodiversity, and support the restoration of ecological integrity.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, provides a framework for the effective implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) through four goals and 23 targets. Target 3 (known as the ‘30x30 target’) calls on Parties to conserve at least 30% of terrestrial, inland waters, and coastal and marine areas by 2030. These guidelines are designed to promote good practices relating to identifying, reporting, monitoring and strengthening OECMs.

As the World Heritage Convention celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, over 1100 sites around the world are recognized as World Heritage - places  that are so valuable to humanity that there conservation has been deemed our collective responsibility. Yet many of these exceptional places face  increasing pressure from diverse types of development projects within and around the sites.