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Protecting the Best Placesan international policy perspective

Charles BesançonUNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre

United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Mission…

To evaluate and highlight the many values of biodiversity and

put authoritative biodiversity knowledge at the centre of

decision-making

Protecting the “Best” Places

• Beautiful ones?

• National paradigms

• International paradigms

– UNESCO World Heritage

– Convention on Biological Diversity

– Conservation priority systems

• Monitoring progress toward reaching goals

– Protected Planet

– Citizen scienceGrand Canyon National Park - USA

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Yellowstone National Park - USA Canaima National Park - Venezuela

Virunga National Park – Democratic Republic of Congo8Namib Naukluft National Park

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Buraraco Das Araras Private Nature Reserve, Brazil Galápagos Islands National Park, Ecuador

UNESCO World

Heritage Sites

The crown jewels of the world’s

national parks

• Cross-cultural concept and critical common denominator

for global heritage conservation

• Focus on the conservation of both cultural and natural

properties of Outstanding Universal Value

• One of the most powerful “tools” in international

conservation

• Strict monitoring and reporting requirements

• One of the most successful international conventions!

Importance of World Heritage

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OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE

The World Heritage ConceptOutstanding Universal Value (OUV)

• Must meet this criteria to go onto the list.

• Not just about good conservation and pretty places

• OUV implies the list should be finite, not forever growing.

• 1 Convention

• 10 Criteria (cultural: i-vi; natural: vii-x)

• 186 States Parties

• 890 World Heritage sites in 148 States Parties:689 cultural, 176 natural and 25 mixed

• 201 natural/mixed World Heritage sites in 81 States Parties protect some 180,000,000 ha of land and sea

• 8% of the total area of the 161,000+ terrestrial (6%)and marine (21%) protected areas known

• 0.5-1.0% of the total land area on Earth

World Heritage in Numbers

• Great Barrier Reef, Australia (1981)

• Central Amazon Conservation Complex, Brazil (2000)

• Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, China (2006)

• Galápagos Islands, Ecuador (1978)

• Lagoons of New Caledonia, France (2008)

• Wadden Sea, Germany & Netherlands (2009)

• Rainforests of the Atsinanana, Madagascar (2007)

• Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, South Africa (2004)

• Serengeti National Park, Tanzania (1981)

• Socotra Archipelago, Yemen (2008)

“Crown Jewels” of Nature

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Convention on Biological Diversity

Three objectives:1. Conservation

2. Sustainable use

3. Benefit-sharing from genetic resources

• 7 thematic programmes of work (mostly ecosystem types)

• 17 cross-cutting issues

•Conference of the Parties has taken around 250 decisions

• Adopted in Nairobi in 1992

• Open for signature at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 (Rio Conventions)

• Entered into force in 1993

• 193 Parties

• Non parties are Andorra, the Holy See and the United States

Convention on Biological Diversity

10th Conference of the Parties

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Target 11

• Target 11: By 2020, at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascapes.

Breakdown of Target 11

• Calls for a protected area system that is

– Composed of:

• 17% of global terrestrial areas

• 10% of global marine area

– Including areas important for biodiversity and ecosystem services

– Effectively and equitably managed

– Ecologically representative

– Well connected

The job of my team

• To collect information and build tools to inform the world how well they are doing in meeting their international protection targets and to assist them in attaining their goals

How do we do it?

How do we do it?

1. Use standards from

“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.“

Ia Strict Nature Reserve

Ib Wilderness area

II National Park

III Natural monument or feature

IV Habitat/species management area

V Protected landscape/seascape

VI Protected area with sustainable use of natural resources

IUCN Protected Area definition Protected Area Management Categories

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Global Trends in Protection

Protected areas

in the WDPA:

1962 1,000

1980 40,000

2003 >100,000

2010 >161,000

Global Growth of Protected Areas

Breakdown of Target 11 (again)

• Calls for a protected area system that is

– Composed of:

• 17% of global terrestrial areas

• 10% of global marine area

– Including areas important for biodiversity and ecosystem services

– Effectively and equitably managed

– Ecologically representative

– Well connected

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But its not only oil and gas.

What about agriculture?

Agricultural expansion

1700

cropland

pasture

Agricultural expansion

1720

cropland

pasture

Agricultural expansion

1740

cropland

pasture

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Agricultural expansion

1760

cropland

pasture

Agricultural expansion

1780

cropland

pasture

Agricultural expansion

1990

cropland

pasture

Back to Target 11

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Important for Biodiversity,

Ecologically Representative

• How to measure?

First some deep background

• Where is biodiversity?

Species: Vertebrates

Hoffmann et al. 2010 Science 330:1503

Species: Plants

Kreft & Jetz 2007 PNAS 104:5925

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Species

~30 million species on Earth

~2 million species described

Habitats: Ecoregions

Olson et al. 2001 BioScience 51:933

Habitats: Marine & Freshwater

Abell et al. 2008 BioScience 58:403; Spalding et al. 2007 BioScience 57:573

So we know where “stuff” is...

• Where is the guidance to tell governments

and civil society where to place new

protected areas to meet the new target?

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Global Priority SystemsPriorities: Endemic Bird Areas

(EBAs)

Stattersfield et al. 1998 Endemic Bird Areas

Priorities: Important Bird Areas

(IBAs)

Hoffmann et al. 2008 Endangered Species Research Vol. 6. 113-125

Priorities: G200 Marine & Freshwater

Abell et al. 2008 BioScience 58:403; Spalding et al. 2007 BioScience 57:573

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Priorities: Crisis Ecoregions

Hoekstra et al . 2005 Ecology Letters 8:23

Priorities: Biodiversity Hotspots

Myers et al. 2000 Nature 403:853

Priorities: Last of the Wild

Sanderson et al. 2002 BioScience 52:891

Biodiversity is everywhere

CE, crisis ecoregions; BH, biodiversity hot spots; EBA, endemic bird areas; CPD, centers of

plant diversity; MC, megadiversity countries; G200, global 200 ecoregions ; HBWA, high-

biodiversity wilderness areas; FF, frontier forests; LW, last of the wild .

Brooks et al. 2006 Science 313:58

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Its very confusing!

• The world needs agreement on

standards...

Umbrella System

“Key Biodiversity Areas” (KBAs)

“Key Biodiversity Areas” (KBAs)

Includes Important Bird

Areas, Important Plant

Areas, Alliance for Zero

Extinction Sites

Target 11 says we need more

protected areas

• Where to put them?

• What would happen if countries protected

Key Biodiversity Areas?

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Protected Areas

and unprotected KBAs

September 2010September 2010

September 2010

Protected Areas

current percent protected

September 2010

Protected Areas

and KBAs if they were protected

What else can the world do?

1. Recognise community conserved areas

as protected areas

2. Connectivity conservation

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Part 2. How can we tell if the

world has achieved it’s

international targets for

protected areas?

Where does the info

come from?

Ecological

gap analysis

Environmental

impact analysis

Science, policy article, Sept 2009

WDPA as basis for measuring global

protection and priority setting

All analyses summarised in Annual Report on Protected Areas, January 2008 and based on WDPA data

Global Ecoregion Protection.

Published in Protected Areas

Annual Report: UNEP-WCMC

2008

Global analysis of the protection

status of the world’s forests.

Biological Conservation 2009

Toward representative

protection of the world’s coasts

and oceans—progress, gaps,

and opportunities. Conservation

Letters 2008

Working Toward High Seas

Marine Protected Areas. An

Assessment of Progress Made and

Recommendations for Collaboration.

UNEP-WCMC 2008

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UNEP World Conservation

Monitoring Centre

15.2% of global carbon stocks are protected

Global protection of Carbon Stocks

future

better future

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Organise the search

19 October 2010

What’s next?

Report

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