Story | 26 Nov, 2013
Forest giraffe joins growing number of threatened species
The Okapi – a national symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as the “forest giraffe” – and the sub-Saharan White-winged Flufftail – one of Africa’s rarest birds – are now on the brink of extinction, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.…
Story | 15 Nov, 2013
Registration now open for the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014
Registration is now open for the IUCN World Parks Congress (WPC), the landmark global forum on protected areas held every 10 years. The event takes place in Sydney, Australia 12-19 November 2014, with the theme 'Parks, people, planet: inspiring solutions' designed to help deliver IUCN’s three…
Press release | 23 Oct, 2013
World nearing 3% of ocean protection
Marseille, France, 24 October 2013 – Marine protected areas now cover 2.8% of the global ocean – an area larger than Europe – according to the official map released today based on data provided by the World Database on Protected Areas, run by IUCN and the United Nations Environment Programme (…
Story | 22 Oct, 2013
Thirty one new Hope Spots - places that are critical to the health of the ocean - were announced yesterday by renowned oceanographer and IUCN Patron Sylvia Earle, a global initiative of the Sylvia Earle Alliance “Mission Blue” and IUCN, with the aim to scale up the marine protection necessary…
Press release | 03 Oct, 2013
Major step towards Asian Rhino Recovery
At a meeting of the five Asian Rhino range states - Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal - a common action plan was agreed today with the aim of increasing the populations of Asian Rhino species by at least 3% annually by 2020.
Press release | 17 Sep, 2013
Action to tackle Southeast Asia’s Extinction Crisis
Southeast Asia hosts a high proportion of the world’s uniquely diverse fauna and flora, but key threats in the region such as habitat loss, hunting and trade continue to drive much of its wildlife towards extinction. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ reveals a worrying concentration of…
Publication | 2013
The legal aspects of connectivity conservation : a concept paper
This publication aims to advance conceptual thinking and legal understanding about important law and policy tools and options for supporting the connectivity of protected area systems. The legal research and analyses reflected in this paper span international, regional, national and local levels…
Publication | 2011
Guidelines for protected areas legislation
The purpose of these guidelines is to update and expand the original guidelines on protected areas legislation published in 1980 and to reflect new developments and emerging issues. These developments include significant advances in international environmental law, and an improved scientific…
Publication | 2004
Indigenous and local communities and protected areas : towards equity and enhanced conservation
Conventional approaches to managing protected areas have often seen people and nature as separate entities. They preclude human communities from using natural resources and assume that their concerns are incompatible with conservation. Protected area approaches and models that see conservation…
Publication | 2000
Indigenous and traditional peoples and protected areas
It is sometimes assumed that protected areas must be in conflict with the rights and traditions of indigenous and other traditional peoples on their domains. In reality, where indigenous peoples are interested in the conservation and traditional use of their lands, waters, territories and the…