Press release | 07 Oct, 2009

Jeju International Workshop on the Future of POWPA workshop (14-17Sept)- Initial outputs now available

A successful and productive workshop that brought together 83 people from 43 countries from 6 continents. 20 different international organisations were represented along with three IUCN commissions – the World Commission on Protected Areas, Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy and the Species Survival Commission – plus representatives from the World Bank, UNDP, governments and protected area agencies. The Ramsar Convention was represented, as was the CBD and in the latter case there were also 11 national focal points for the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA).

Photo: CBD logo

Nik Lopokhine, WCPA Commission Chair says:

The Workshop met all of my expectations. The meeting resulted in a consensus among the participants in formulating strong recommendations aimed at strengthening the future of the PoWPA. These recommendations will feed into decisions at COP 10. IUCN WCPA was asked by the CBD Secretariat (SCBD) to collaborate in drawing up proposals for enhanced action. It invites feedback from IUCN members and we expect the ideas to develop further.

The Jeju meeting is being followed by five regional workshops organised by the CBD in preparation for SBSSTA, taking place in South Korea (held immediately after the Jeju workshop) and during October 2010 in Côte d’Ivoire, India, Germany and Colombia.

Initial outputs from the workshop are now available on the workshop website. Further final documents will be made available in the coming weeks:

Once again the IUCN WCPA wish to thank all those that made this successful workshop possible including the Korean Ministry of Environment, the Korean National Park Service, the IUCN Protected Areas Programme, along with governments of Finland, the Netherlands and Canada, UNEP – Spain Lifeweb Project, and Conservation International and not forgetting the participants themselves!

Downloads:

Future of Powpa Final 10-9-09

Summary of the International Workshop on Jeju