WCPA Chair Awards Marseille 2021
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Craig Groves (USA) has acted as Editor for the WCPA Publications series since 2014. During that time, he has worked with the project teams with the greatest professionalism to edit and improve submitted manuscripts and produce high standard WCPA reports and guidelines. Over the last quadrennial he has overseen the publication of 9 WCPA Best Practice Guidelines and 4 Technical Reports, a major body of work.
WCPA Publications
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Marc Hockings (Australia) is receiving the Chair’s Award for his tireless service as Editor of PARKS, the WCPA scientific online journal over the last five years. This has involved an enormous amount of work delivering two editions of the journal every year as well as two Special Issues on Other effective are-based conservation measures (2018) and Protected Areas and Covid 19 (2021). All issues of PARKS are available free online at www.parksjournal.com. Marc has taken on this role in addition to his work as WCPA Vice Chair for Science and Management and his engagement with the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas.
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Karen Keenleyside (Canada) has played a key role in WCPA’s partnership with the Commission on Education and Communication to develop the #NatureforAll initiative, a global movement to inspire love of nature and promote more inclusive conservation. As part of that work, she led and managed a team from Parks Canada engaged in delivering the virtual Global Youth Summit as part of the Marseille World Conservation Congress.
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Harvey Locke (Canada) leads the Beyond Aichi Task Force established at WCC in Hawaii in 2016 to coordinate WCPA input to policy discussions on the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity. As part of this initiative Harvey has organised regional workshops and meetings around the globe and engaged in CBD workshops and SBSSTA meetings, as well as scientific meetings and regional workshops. to promote more ambitious conservation targets, post 2020 a focussing on protected and conserved areas.
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Claudio Maretti (Brazil) is the WCPA Regional Vice-Chair for South America. Along with Allan Valverde, Julia Miranda (WCPA Deputy Chair) and colleagues at Redparques and INParques (Peru) he led the organisation of the highly successful Latin American and Caribbean Protected Area Congress (CAPLACIII) in Lima in 2019. CAPLACIII was a remarkable event that brought together NGOs, scientists, government agencies, local communities, youth and Indigenous Peoples to deliver the Lima Declaration. As a legacy of the Congress annual events are being staged around October 17th, LAC Protected Area Day.
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Allan Valverde (Costa Rica) as the WCPA Regional Vice Chair for Central America and the Caribbean took lead responsibility for the preparation and delivery of technical aspects of the 3rd Latin American and Caribbean Protected Area Congress (CAPLACIII) in 2019. This very successful Congress was remarkable for the high level of engagement and support from Indigenous Peoples and young people. Subsequently Allan has worked with other congress leaders on annual follow up activities to deliver commitments from Lima, including publication of the LAC Protected Planet Report in 2021.
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Stephen Woodley (Canada) has made outstanding contributions to WCPA and IUCN’s work on delivering Aichi Target 11 and the post 2020 discussions on targets for protected and conserved areas. As Vice Chair for Science and Biodiversity, he has led WCPA’s work in the Key Biodiversity Areas Partnership and been a key member of the IUCN team contributing input to the CBD discussion and working drafts on the post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Stephen has also led the development of the guidelines on Connectivity and Ecological networks.
WCPA Chair Awards 2016 IUCN WCC Hawai'i
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Penny has dedicated her life conservation and service to the World Commission on Protected Areas. As Director of the Australian Committee for IUCN, she established a prominent leading role for IUCN and WCPA contributing to Australian conservation policy discussions and planning for the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014. As WCPA Regional Vice-Chair for Oceania, she has been a proactive and energetic member of the international Steering Committee and Executive of WCPA, providing valuable support to the Chair and Deputy Chair. Penny has worked tirelessly at state, national and international levels to promote the importance of protected areas under all types of governance and management regimes. She has contributed to many significant conservation outcomes, including establishment of new protected areas, increased budgets for protected areas, Indigenous employment in land and sea management, the promotion of connectivity conservation and the incorporation of ecosystems into climate change mitigation and adaptation responses. She has championed the WCPA Young Professionals and improved governance within WCPA, and is a prolific conference organiser and author, who has promoted WCPA’s priorities and published extensively on conservation topics.
Andrej has made an outstanding contribution to the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, and to conservation in Europe. As WCPA Regional Vice-Chair for Europe, Andre has worked to maintain a diverse and active network in a challenging region with multiple countries, cultures and languages. He has shown dynamic leadership and strong commitment to capacity development and outreach, working with a range of partners ranging from the Europarc Federation to small local NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector, and has committed substantial personal time to promoting the WCPA agenda in the region. In particular, his efforts to organize the Little Sydney in Europe event stand out as a major accomplishment, building on the World Parks Congress. The meeting helped to determine regional priorities and next steps in delivering the Promise of Sydney at regional and national levels within Europe as well as making significant positive inputs to the debate on reviewing the European Nature Directives.
