Effective protected areas

About effective protected areas

Protected areas – national parks, wilderness areas, community conserved areas, nature reserves and so on – are a mainstay of biodiversity conservation, while also contributing to people’s livelihoods, particularly at the local level. Protected areas are at the core of efforts towards conserving nature and the services it provides us – food, clean water supply, medicines and protection from the impacts of natural disasters. Their role in helping mitigate and adapt to climate change is also increasingly recognised; it has been estimated that the global network of protected areas stores at least 15% of terrestrial carbon.

Helping countries and communities designate and manage systems of protected areas on land and in the oceans, is one of IUCN’s main areas of expertise and a key focus of attention of IUCN’s work. Effectively managed systems of protected areas have been recognised as critical instruments in achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals.

How does IUCN contribute to fair and effective protected areas?

The Protected and Conserved Areas Team focuses on the IUCN Green List Standard as the guiding framework for delivery of the IUCN Programme: conserving nature, developing capacity, achieving quality, respecting people, and offering solutions.

We work to promote implementation of global standards for fair governance and effective management of systems of protected and conserved areas, including the IUCN Green List and other standards for performance, diversity, quality, rights, and equity.

In its work on Ecosystems and Protected Areas, IUCN has achieved:

What are effective protected areas

A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values.

IUCN Definition, 2008

IUCN, along with the United Nations Environment  – World Conservation Monitoring Centre, maintains a global database of protected and conserved areas. This database, accessible through Protected Planet, lists about 261,766 officially recognised protected areas, covering over 15% of the of the earth’s land surface and 7.4% of the world’s oceans. This figure is only the official record; there are many more conserved areas, such as indigenous peoples’ territories and privately conserved wild areas. IUCN is working to identify and recognise  these areas and to bring their achievements into the global community of protected and conserved areas.

Yet, to address the mounting challenges to nature, and achieve a positive foundation for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, we need more than percentages and hectares or acres on a map. We need these conserved  areas to be vital signs of life. We need them to offer hope, regeneration, and good health. We depend on them for clean air, fresh water and rainfall, pollination, and spiritual sanctuary to people all over the world, in urban and in rural communities.

IUCN and partners are committed to making sure that these refuges for nature are governed and managed as fairly and effectively as possible. We want to make sure that the men and women working on the forefront of our battle against environmental loss can and do receive the recognition and support they deserve. Their success is helping secure our future.

Policy Positions

IUCN advocates adoption of a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that catalyses decisive action to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and achieve recovery and restoration by 2050.

This Strategic Initiative focuses on four components of the GBF, critical to success:

• Protected and conserved areas in the right places, effectively managed and equitably governed – through the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas
• Concerted global action for species and support through a Global Species Action Plan
• Restoration of ecosystems at scale through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 
• Resourcing the Framework by placing nature at the centre of the economy through incentives to increase investment in nature by approximately 0.7-1.0% of global GDP