Terms of Reference
Goal and Terms of Reference
The goal of the Specialist Group on Private Protected Areas and Nature Stewardship is to improve understanding and recognition of the role of private approaches to nature conservation, and enhance the effectiveness of privately protected and conserved areas through information gathering and sharing at global level.
Its Terms of Reference include to:
Background
Protected areas are owned and managed through private mechanisms in most of the world, and their number and extent are growing fast. Often the result of local initiative and conducted without the direct intervention of government, they are not yet fully integrated in national conservation planning or reporting in many countries. The international system of protected area management categories historically emphasized the role of governments. Reflecting this, privately protected areas are not as well understood globally as their contributions warrant.
“The IUCN protected area definition and management categories are “neutral” about types of ownership or management authority. In other words, the land, water and natural resources in any management category can be owned and/or managed by government agencies, NGOs, communities, indigenous peoples and private parties – alone or in combination. Both IUCN and the CBD [Convention on Biological Diversity] recognise the legitmacy of governance types.” “IUCN has identified diverse governance types in order to help in understanding, planning for and recording protected areas.” 1 [Emphasis added]
“There is clearly a need to start developing a common understanding of PPAs globally, based on the IUCN approach and practice. Our recommended definition is: a privately protected area is a protected area, as defined by IUCN, under private governance (i.e. individuals and groups?of individuals; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); corporations – both existing commercial companies?and sometimes corporations set up by groups of private owners to manage groups of PPAs; for-profit owners; research entities (e.g. universities, field stations)?or religious entities), or put more simply a privately conserved area is only a PPA if it is a protected area as defined by IUCN. Anchoring the definition of a PPA in IUCN’s lexicon is important because the governance of an area can change but the objective of conserving nature needs to remain the same. It is important to note that there are many types?of private conservation areas that will not qualify as a PPA as defined above and that the PPA category does not therefore describe all types of private conservation areas.”2
Mandates
WCC 2008 Resolution 072 Private protected areas and nature stewardship
The World Conservation Congress, at its 4th Session in Barcelona, Spain, 5-14 October 2008, provides the following guidance concerning implementation of the IUCN Programme 2009-2012:
REQUESTS the Director General and the Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), in consultation with the World Commission on Protected Areas, to consider mechanisms to establish a task force on private protected areas and nature stewardship to organize and access the knowledge of a voluntary group of experts interested in private protected areas and nature stewardship.
WCC 2016 Resolution 037 Supporting privately protected areas
The World Conservation Congress, at its session in Hawai‘i, United States of America, 1-10 September 2016:
URGES the Director General, Commissions and Members to promote and support the voluntary long-term conservation of private and communal land, in particular privately protected areas, and the contributions it makes to conservation of biodiversity and all forms of natural diversity and heritage, and to the rehabilitation, connectivity and/or restoration of ecosystem functions indispensable to humanity…
Anticipated Outputs
Updated from 2011
1 Dudley, N. (Editor) (2008). Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. X + 86pp. ISBN 978-2-8317-1086-0
2 Sue Stolton, Kent H. Redford and Nigel Dudley (2014). The Futures of Privately Protected Areas. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
Goal and Terms of Reference
The goal of the Specialist Group on Private Protected Areas and Nature Stewardship is to improve understanding and recognition of the role of private approaches to nature conservation, and enhance the effectiveness of privately protected and conserved areas through information gathering and sharing at global level.
Its Terms of Reference include to:
- complete IUCN’s understanding of protected area governance, bringing privately protected areas into equal standing with government, co-managed, and indigenous and community conserved areas;
- contribute to the integration of privately protected areas (PPAs) in national protected area systems and global conservation planning and reporting;
- develop and communicate management guidelines through an expert consultation process;
- contribute to dialogues on protected area governance;
- contribute to the definition of and management guidance on “conserved areas,” specifically privately conserved areas; and
- organize and access the knowledge of a voluntary group of experts interested in privately protected areas and nature stewardship.
Background
Protected areas are owned and managed through private mechanisms in most of the world, and their number and extent are growing fast. Often the result of local initiative and conducted without the direct intervention of government, they are not yet fully integrated in national conservation planning or reporting in many countries. The international system of protected area management categories historically emphasized the role of governments. Reflecting this, privately protected areas are not as well understood globally as their contributions warrant.
“The IUCN protected area definition and management categories are “neutral” about types of ownership or management authority. In other words, the land, water and natural resources in any management category can be owned and/or managed by government agencies, NGOs, communities, indigenous peoples and private parties – alone or in combination. Both IUCN and the CBD [Convention on Biological Diversity] recognise the legitmacy of governance types.” “IUCN has identified diverse governance types in order to help in understanding, planning for and recording protected areas.” 1 [Emphasis added]
“There is clearly a need to start developing a common understanding of PPAs globally, based on the IUCN approach and practice. Our recommended definition is: a privately protected area is a protected area, as defined by IUCN, under private governance (i.e. individuals and groups?of individuals; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); corporations – both existing commercial companies?and sometimes corporations set up by groups of private owners to manage groups of PPAs; for-profit owners; research entities (e.g. universities, field stations)?or religious entities), or put more simply a privately conserved area is only a PPA if it is a protected area as defined by IUCN. Anchoring the definition of a PPA in IUCN’s lexicon is important because the governance of an area can change but the objective of conserving nature needs to remain the same. It is important to note that there are many types?of private conservation areas that will not qualify as a PPA as defined above and that the PPA category does not therefore describe all types of private conservation areas.”2
Mandates
WCC 2008 Resolution 072 Private protected areas and nature stewardship
The World Conservation Congress, at its 4th Session in Barcelona, Spain, 5-14 October 2008, provides the following guidance concerning implementation of the IUCN Programme 2009-2012:
REQUESTS the Director General and the Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), in consultation with the World Commission on Protected Areas, to consider mechanisms to establish a task force on private protected areas and nature stewardship to organize and access the knowledge of a voluntary group of experts interested in private protected areas and nature stewardship.
WCC 2016 Resolution 037 Supporting privately protected areas
The World Conservation Congress, at its session in Hawai‘i, United States of America, 1-10 September 2016:
URGES the Director General, Commissions and Members to promote and support the voluntary long-term conservation of private and communal land, in particular privately protected areas, and the contributions it makes to conservation of biodiversity and all forms of natural diversity and heritage, and to the rehabilitation, connectivity and/or restoration of ecosystem functions indispensable to humanity…
Anticipated Outputs
- Provide a common forum for private and public sectors to focus on private protected areas and stewardship, identifying gaps / needs / specific measures / actions to undertake
- Publication of Management Guidelines for Privately Protected Areas in WCPA’s Best Practice Guidelines Series (drawing from existing regional guidelines and SG member experience)
- Advice and guidance to the IUCN Global Protected Areas Program on protected areas management categories and typologies of governance
- Feedback loops to/from regional networks (e.g., Interamerican Conference, Eurosite meetings, etc)
- Connection to the work of other IUCN Commissions through information dissemmination and direct cross-over membership (currently with Species Survival Commission, Commission on Environmental Law, and CEESP).
- Guidance on increasing reporting of privately protected areas in the World Database of Protected Areas, identified as a priority of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre
- Participation in the work of the WCPA task force on Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures
- A social media platform for communication of the emerging community practice
- Collection and dissemination of existing documentation building on the current bibliography on privately protected areas
Updated from 2011
1 Dudley, N. (Editor) (2008). Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. X + 86pp. ISBN 978-2-8317-1086-0
2 Sue Stolton, Kent H. Redford and Nigel Dudley (2014). The Futures of Privately Protected Areas. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
The specialist group overlaps with a community of practice of approximately 900 people in communication on our topic. These include several hundred members of the World Commission of Protected Areas (a requirement for SG membership), plus other interested experts and PPA practitioners. At the center are a core group of "strategists" who help to plan and coordinate activities. This latter group is kept small for practical reasons, and reports to WCPA leadership and the IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme.