Objectives, Categories and Institutional Options for Protected Areas

1. Mobile Seminar on Protected Area Management Costa Rica June 9-20, 2008 Objectives, Categories and Institutional Options for Protected Areas Jim Barborak

2. Key points • What is a protected area? • PA management objectives and their relationship with management categories • IUCN management categories • Current process to update and improve the IUCN framework • Perspectives on governance, institutional options and management categories

3. Protected Area: Current IUCN Definition • “Terrestrial and/or marine area, dedicated especially to the protection and conservation of biological diversity and related natural and cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means”

4. Protect biodiversity Protect cultural resources Protect unique natural sites and features Promote research Promote environmental education and interpretation Promote outdoor recreation and ecotourism Contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development, employment, foreign exchange and income generation Protected watersheds and water sources Prevent natural disasters Restore degraded areas Maintain options open for the future Manage natural resources in a sustainable fashion Protected Area Objectives

5. Services Protect biodiversity Protect watersheds Prevent natural disasters Serve as living laboratories Promote recreation and tourism Rescue spiritual/cultural values Serve as outdoor classrooms Promote climate change mitigation and adaptation Goods Wood and minor forest products Fiber Fruits, nuts and other foods Construction materials Medicinal plants Water Bushmeat Fish, molluscs, seafood Protected Areas Provide Environmental Goods and Services

6. Management Categories • Principle types of protected areas, differentiated based on distinct management objectives and characteristics, on the activities that are permitted or prohibited and on the mix and relative importance of different environmental goods and services they produce for society • Since the 1970s IUCN has attempted to reach global consensus on management categories • The Convention on Biological Diversity recommends adoption of management category classification systems such as that of IUCN • Categories and governance are two different aspects of protected aras: any category can be managed by any number of institutions

7. Areas principally managed for environmental services: Categories I, II, III Areas managed to produce both environmental goods and services: Categories IV, V, VI There are six global management categories

8. Categories principally for production of environmental services • Category I: Wilderness/Strict Nature Reserve • Category II: National Park • Category III: National Monument

9. Categories that produce both environmental goods and services • Category IV: Area for management of species and habitats • Category V: Protected landscape/seascape • Category VI: Managed resource reserve - The system is not hierarchical and all categories are important for conservation - National designations and categories often have nothing to do with IUCN definitions

10. Review of IUCN Categories is Underway

11. Process is underway to improve category system • Durban accords and Bangkok resolution of IUCN recommend updating system • IUCN WCPA has established a task force and global process for updating the category system by the end of 2008 • Summit held in Almeria, Spain, more than 60 background documents produced, many regional fora

12. Major points of discussion Is IUCN deemphasizing the role of protected areas? Are extractive and “soft” categories being favored? Are traditional names associated with categories going to be eliminated (e.g. national park)?

13. Points of consensus New definition taking place “A specifically delineated area designated and managed to achieve the conservation of nature and maintenance of associated cultural values, through legal or other effective means”

14. Consensus that conservation of biological diversity must be a principle objective of any area for it to qualify as a protected area

15. In case of conflict, biodiversity conservation should be the principle objective: “For IUCN, only those sites where the main goal or outcome is conserving nature should be considered protected areas. Note that this would include many sites which can have other goals as well, at the same level, such as cultural or spiritual, but in the case of conflict nature conservation has to be the priority.”

16. Points of agreement • First decide if a place should even be considered to be a protected area then define category • Traditional names of categories will be retained with more explanatory text and a glossary • It will be stressed that all categories contribute to conservation, but specific objectives and category should be defined based on the situation of each • If management effectiveness is limited, first you should try to improve management before you consider changing the management category!

17. Lessons for the Developing World • All categories play a role in a robust protected area system • A range of institutional options and tenure types contribute to strong PA systems • We should not argue over which category is best, but about which category or categories, zones and limits are needed for any given area • Recognize that much conservation needs to take place outside protected areas in buffer zones, corridors and other private, communal and indigenous lands, at the landscape level, to complement protected areas systems

18. Traditional view Protected areas are government owned, government managed, and government designated Current View PAs can be owned or managed by all levels of government, NGOs, private land owners, communities and tribal authorities Good management of any area requires a range of actors from the public and private sectors and community involvement Planning and management should be participatory and adaptive Privatization, devolution of control to local actors, and decentralization are occurring around the world Governance and Institutional Aspects

19. The range of institutional options • Management by central, regional or local governments • Management by NGOs • Management by universities and university consortia • Management by private landowners • Management by tribal and community authorities • Management by corporations • Comanagement, parastatals and management councils are important concepts Ownership, management authority, and management category are three separate but related concepts.

20. Before… Planned and managed by individual agencies and by experts Managed as islands apart from the surrounding landscape Tendency Planned and managed in a participatory manner as part of national and international PA systems Managed as networks of protected areas, surrounded by buffers and linked by corridors Ecosystem and landscape/seascape approach Planning and Management Context

21. Before Protected areas seen as the exclusive domain of national governments Unilateral responsibility of the state Managed individually or at the national level without regard for international implications Tendency Protected areas seen as something of local, regional, national concern Protected areas are part of international obligations of nations PA management is the collective responsibility of nations, civil society and the international community Perspectives on PA management