Subject: - IUCN and protected areas
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 08:31:31 +0200
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Reply-To: THIERY Cecile
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PRESS RELEASE
Embargoed until 18:00hrs, 6 May 1998
IUCN offers guidance on integrating protected areas and land-use
planning in the 21st Century
IUCN - The World Conservation Union today launched its World Best
Practice Protected Area Guidelines Series for distribution to the over
1,500 environmental experts from around the world who are attending the
4th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Series represents the state of the art knowledge on protected area
issues and was developed through the network of over 1,300 protected
area professionals that make up the IUCN World Commission on Protected
Areas (WCPA).
The Guideline Series is being sponsored by the Department of City and
Regional Planning at Cardiff University. Professor Jeremy Alden says
"the Department is pleased to be associated with the production of this
important series of guidelines. The Department, through its
Environmental and Countryside Research Unit, is actively engaged in
research into protected area issues. Our mission is to be a leading
centre of excellence in protected area research."
The first publication in the Series - which is cosponsored by the
Government of Norway - National System Planning for Protected Areas
offers guidance to governments on how to develop a more integrated
approach to the management and establishment of protected areas.
The guidance is particularly relevant to requirements of the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD). Article 8(a) of the Convention calls on
Contracting Parties to establish a system of protected areas or areas
where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological
diversity. The guidelines document offers practical and relevant advise
on how to achieve this.
Series editor Adrian Phillips, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on
Protected Areas (WCPA), says that "the tradition has been to treat
protected areas as islands of ecological integrity. But they are up
against such enormous pressures that they will never survive unless we
integrate their management into social, economic and environmental
planning for the country as a whole. The best way to do that is through
a national system plan for each country's protected areas."
There are now over 30,000 protected areas world-wide, covering over 8%
of the earth's surface (an area bigger than India and China combined).
But demands on these areas from burgeoning human populations and
economic activity are so great that they can no longer be planned and
managed ad hoc. A recent WCPA High Level Symposium on Protected Areas
held in Albany. Western Australia found that a systematic approach was
needed so that the right kind of protected areas are established in the
places needed, and their management integrated with the economic and
social needs of the human population.
The recommendations made by IUCN in National System Planning for
Protected Areas call for an organised process by which governments can
improve the effectiveness of their protected area system. This involves
identifying gaps in protected area coverage; prioritising where limited
resources should be invested; increasing communication between key
government departments at all levels; and involving more stakeholders in
the design and management of protected areas.
For more information please contact: David Sheppard, Head, IUCN
Programme on Protected
Areas, Rue de Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland.
Tel: 41 22 999 0165; Fax: 41 22 999 0015
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Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 08:37:07 +0200
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Reply-To: THIERY Cecile
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PRESS RELEASE
Embargoed until 18:00 hrs, 6 May 1998
Over 13 million square kilometres of land and sea protected to conserve
the world's natural and cultural heritage
The latest edition of the United Nations List of Protected Areas,
launched on 6th May 1998 at the 4th Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity, lists a global network in excess of
30,000 protected areas. Each of these areas is designated under
national legislation especially to conserve nature and associated
cultural resources. This network covers 13.2 million square kilometres
of land, freshwater and sea, an area larger than Canada and almost
equivalent in size to Antarctica. The terrestrial part of the network is
much more extensive than the marine component and accounts for some 11.7
million square kilometres - nearly 8% of the world's land area.
"Particularly encouraging is the continuing growth in the global
protected areas network", explains Michael Green whose team at the World
Conservation Monitoring Centre was responsible for compiling the 1997 UN
List. "While recognising that situations vary enormously from one
country to the next, our findings contradict a widely held view that
opportunities to expand the global network are diminishing as land and
coastal waters face ever-rising pressures from development". However, as
Adrian Phillips, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas,
points out, "many of the protected areas listed are poorly resourced and
inadequately managed - indeed, a few are no more than paper parks." He
adds: "A major emphasis in our Commission's programme will now be
devoted to developing methods to help countries improve the
effectiveness with which their protected areas are managed. More than
ever, the long term welfare of people depends on sound,
ecologically-based management of the environment, the basis of which is
provided by this global network of well-managed protected areas."
The United Nations List of Protected Areas is widely regarded as
providing a definitive record of the world's protected areas estate. Its
origins go back to a resolution of the 27th Session of the United
Nations Economic and Social Council in 1959, which recognised the role
of protected areas in the wise use of natural resources, and led to the
compilation of the first World List of National Parks and Equivalent
Reserves in 1962. Nearly forty years on, the importance of protected
areas in national conservation programmes has been stressed by many of
the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in
their national reports on their implementation of the Convention.
Significantly, the UN List provides a ready-made means of measuring
progress in implementing Article 8(a) of the Convention on Biological
Diversity, which calls upon each Contracting Party to, " Establish a
system of protected areas or areas where special measures need to be
taken to conserve biological diversity." In this respect, the 1997 UN
List shows an increase of some 3.9 million square kilometres since the
previous edition in 1993. Approximately one third of this increase can
be attributed to some 460 new protected areas created since the
beginning of 1994. They include the vast Ar-Rub'al-khali Wildlife
Management Area (640,000 square kilometres) in Saudi Arabia and the
Arabian Oryx Sanctuary (34,000 square kilometres) in Oman. The rest of
the apparent increase is due to a change in the way the UN List is
compiled, resulting in all protected areas (larger than 1,000 hectares)
qualifying for inclusion.
* The 1997 UN List was prepared jointly by the World Conservation
Monitoring Centre, based in Cambridge, UK, and the IUCN World Commission
on Protected Areas, with its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. It is
arranged by country and classified by management aims, ranging from
strict protection to management for the sustainable use of natural
ecosystems. For practical reasons, only those sites larger than 1,000
hectares plus entirely protected islands of 100 hectares or more, are
recorded. There are 12,754 of these, covering all but 0.2% of the
protected areas estate.
* A protected area is defined by IUCN as "An area of land and/or sea
especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological
diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed
through legal or other effective means."
* Conservation biology theory advocates that protected areas should be
as large as possible in order to:
* maximise the degree to which their contents retain their integrity;
* minimise risks of species' extinction; and
* maximise representation of ecological communities and their
constituent species.
Given that protected areas are often islands of natural or near-natural
habitat in a sea of humanity, the larger they are, the better they are
buffered from outside pressures. The world's largest protected areas,
which exceed 100,000 km?, are Greenland National Park, Greenland
(972,000 square kilometres), Ar-Rub'al-khali Wildlife Management Area,
Saudi Arabia (640,000 square kilometres), Great Barrier Reef Marine
Park, Australia (344,800 square kilometres), Qiang Tang Nature Reserve,
China (247,120 square kilometres), Cape Churchill Wildlife Management
Area, Canada (137,072 square kilometres), and Northern Wildlife
Management Zone, Saudi Arabia (100,875 square kilometres).
* Many protected areas designated by national authorities are also
recognised for their international importance under global or regional
conventions and programmes. For example, Everglades National Park in the
USA, an extensive swamp of tall grasses and mangrove forest well-known
for its alligators and rare and endemic plants, is listed as a wetland
of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, as well as
being inscribed under the World Heritage Convention as a natural
property of outstanding universal value. It has also been designated as
a biosphere reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme.
Galapagos National Park, Ecuador, renowned for its many endemic plants
and animals, is a World Heritage site and the archipelago is also a
biosphere reserve. Within the UK, part of the Broads - a nationally
designated wetland - is also a Ramsar site, as well as a Special
Protection Area under the European Commission's Bird Directive.
Currently, there are some 891 Ramsar wetlands, 114 World Heritage
natural properties (and a further 20 properties of mixed
natural/cultural value), 352 biosphere reserves and 1,470 special
protection areas, all of which are recorded in the 1997 UN List.
For further information contact:
Katherine Mann, IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Rue de Mauverney 28,
Gland CH1196, Switzerland. Tel: +41 22 9990121 Fax: +41 22 9990010
Esther Byford, World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 219 Huntingdon
Road, Cambridge, CB3 0DL, UK. Tel: +44 1223 277314 Fax: +44 1223 277136
Copies of the 1997 United Nations List of Protected Areas are available
from:
IUCN Publications Services Unit, 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3
0DL, UK. Tel: +44 1223 277894 Fax: +44 1223 277175
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