Protected areas

During a forum held at the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress in South Africa in 2003, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the IUCN SSC Veterinary and Southern Africa Sustainable Use Specialist Groups (VSG and SASUSG) brought together nearly 80 experts from Africa and beyond to develop ways to tackle the immense health-related conservation and development challenges at the wildlife/domestic animal/human interface facing East and Southern Africa today, and tomorrow.

The Vth IUCN World Parks Congress was the largest gathering of protected area experts. In September 2003, some 3,000 participants met in Durban, South Africa for 10 days of reflection, discussion, debate and networking to consider the state of the world's protected areas, the challenges they face and the opportunities that lie ahead. Are included the reports on the plenary sessions, symposia and workshop, as well as the main outputs from the event.

The traditional patterns of land use that have created many of the world’s cultural landscapes contribute to biodiversity, support ecological processes, provide important environmental services, and have proven sustainable over the centuries. Protected landscapes can serve as living models of sustainable use of land and resources, and offer important lessons for sustainable development.