The Team
IUCN’s Protected and Conserved Areas Team represents a diverse and passionate group of conservationists, whose collective experience spans the globe.
Heading
Leading voices in global conservation
Heading
Leading voices in global conservation
Description
IUCN’s PCA team engage in and influence global conservation policy at the highest level. This includes close work with the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and IUCN’s +1,400 members, who together represent a global authority on the conservation of the world’s most precious ecosystems.
The drive to conserve our planet's lands and waters
In line with Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, IUCN is a leading advocate to conserve 30% of the planet’s terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems by 2030.
30x30 represents a global challenge to achieve effective area-based conservation at considerable scale. It also requires countries around the world to identify, recognise, and create a diverse array of protections - from justly governed State national parks, to recognising and promoting the rights and contributions of Indigenous lands and traditional territories, to protected underwater wrecks, surf breaks, urban green spaces, and a lot more in between!
Our team’s decades-long experience in establishing and working with protected and conserved areas across the planet makes IUCN a key actor in achieving this global goal.
Promoting diverse conservation models
Conservation can take many shapes and forms. Our work with Other Effective area-based Conservation Models (OECMs) aims to recognise and strengthen the role of a wide variety of conserved areas towards achieving 30x30.
Central to our philosophy of Protected and Conserved Areas is the leading role that Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LCs) must play in governing and benefitting from
conservation initiatives.
For effective conservation to ...
Ensuring Effective Conservation
The challenge to meet 30x30 is matched by the need to ensure that protected and conserved areas globally, both new and existing, meet basic standards for fair and effective conservation.
Through the IUCN Green List, protected and conserved areas can both self-evaluate and become certified as having met this comprehensive Standard.
Supporting local changemakers
Through programmes such as BIOPAMA and BEST, the Protected and Conserved Areas Team at IUCN has established itself as a key global grant-maker to NGOs, communities and academic institutions working to preserve our planet.
Innovation in Conservation
Technological innovation has the potential to provide innovative, accelerated and scalable solutions to the diverse challenges facing protected and conserved areas and those who govern and manage them.
Through IUCN’s partnerships with global GIS leader Esri and tech giant Huawei, we’re helping to provide conservationists - from local and Indigenous ranger teams to high-level policy makers - with the latest access to cutting-edge technologies to help make the best ...
Action at all levels
Whilst much of the team is based at IUCN’s headquarters in Gland, Switzerland, we enjoy a close partnership with our regional offices around the world. This includes team members stationed at country and regional offices, who provide hands-on assistance to project implementation in their regions and enable IUCN’s work with protected and conserved areas to continue to connect to local and global realities.
Stay informed
Sign up for an IUCN newsletter