The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
Box 2.
Milestones in recognising and developing the protected
landscape approach (cont.)
The WCPA Protected Landscapes Task Force, working with partner organizations, has
produced several publications (see examples below), convened international meetings (e.g.,
working session and seminar, Stow-on-the-Wold, England, UK, 2001) and regional work -
shops (e.g., Andean landscapes – Baeza, Ecuador, 2001), and led a workshop at the V th World
Parks Congress.
In 2002 IUCN published Management Guidelines for IUCN Category V Protected Areas:
Protected Landscapes/Seascapes (Phillips, 2002), as part of the IUCN/Cardiff University
series on best practice in protected area management. Other recent publications coming out of
the work of the Protected Landscapes Task Force include an issue of the journal PARKS on
Category V Protected Areas (Beresford, Ed. 2003) and an issue of George Wright Forum on
Stewardship of Protected Landscapes (Brown, Mitchell and Sarmiento, Eds. 2000).
Recent international symposia have highlighted the importance of cultural landscapes, in -
cluding a 2002 session on “Cultural Landscapes – the Challenges of Conservation,” convened
by UNESCO on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention
(Ferrara, Italy, 2002); and “Learning from World Heritage” a US/ICOMOS symposium on
cultural and ecological landscapes of global significance (Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA,
2004).
At the V th World Parks Congress (Durban, South Africa, 2003), the WCPA Protected
Landscapes Task Force convened a workshop on Protected Landscapes and Seascapes. A
Congress workshop stream on Linkages in the Landscape/Seascape and cross-cutting themes
on Local Communities and Equity and World Heritage, respectively, highlighted the im -
portance of landscape-scale conservation, community involvement in protected areas, and
cultural landscapes, points formalized in recommendations and in the Durban Accord.
Sources: Phillips, 2002; Mitchell and Buggey, 2001.
Protected landscapes at the V th World Parks Congress
The topic of Protected Landscapes and Seascapes featured prominently at the V th World Parks
Congress (WPC) in 2003, in venues that included workshops, panels, and debate.
The World Parks Congress recognised the important role of indigenous and local com -
munities in creating and managing protected areas. Far from being a side topic, the role of
communities was a central part of the debate in Durban on protected areas and their future.
Communities and Equity was a cross-cutting theme of the Congress, and was on the agenda as
never before, integrated into each of the seven workshop streams, and addressed in plenary
discussions and in Congress products such as the Durban Accord. This integration came about
thanks to the vision of the WPC steering committee and the work of members of the Theme on
Indigenous and Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas (TILCEPA), an inter- com -
mission group of WCPA and the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social
Policy (CEESP). The participation of community and tribal leaders from around the world
greatly enriched discussions at the Congress.
Several sessions in WPC Stream 1 (Linkages in the Landscape and Seascape) focused on
Protected Landscapes and Seascapes. The Linkages in the Landscape and Seascape stream
focused on the challenge of designing new ecological networks for a better integration of
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