Protected areas

Climate change poses serious threats to many coastal and marine systems, including those being managed as protected areas. The following manual describes an approach – Climate Adaptation Methodology for Protected Areas (CAMPA): Coastal and Marine – for developing climate adaptation measures in the management of coastal and marine protected areas. 

IUCN's Protected Areas Management Categories, which classify protected areas according to their management objectives, are today accepted as the benchmark for defining, recording and classifying protected areas.They are recognized by international bodies such as the United Nations as well as many national governments. As a result, they are increasingly being incorporated into government legislation.

In international negotiations, especially on biodiversity, local ecological knowledge has been often limited to issues relating to indigenousness. Based on the concepts of heritage and the terroir, approaches have been developed in France, thus making it possible to better understand, conserve and exploit ecological knowledge and associated biodiversity.

Many Parties to the CBD underutilise tourism as a means to contribute towards the financial sustainability of protected areas. The development of the present guidelines on tourism partnerships and concessions for protected areas is a response to this under-utilized potential and to recent decisions of the CBD on tourism.