1.Front section - IUCN

Protected areas and local and indigenous communities 8
2003). This approach does not detract from the main
and central goal of protected areas, to conserve nature,
but it does promote the goal of social justice to a
higher level comparable to the one of protecting
genes, species and habitats. It is also an approach that
purposefully seeks to position the role of protected
areas more broadly within the sustainable
development agenda. Much remains to be understood
about practising social justice and addressing human
rights in conservation. This is no doubt an ethical
consideration with practical implications that will
increasingly permeate debates surrounding nature
conservation.
Policies and actions needed
to support the relationship
between local and indigenous
communities and protected
areas over the coming ten years
Protected areas within sustainable
development
Policies
● Protected areas are integrated within a broad
sustainable development planning agenda.
● Conservation strategies and poverty reduction
and policy frameworks are integrated and
oriented towards common goals.
● Protected areas are integrated within larger
multiple land-use and marine systems.
Park planning, Sri Lanka.
Actions
■ Understand the linkages between protected areas
(their functions and governance systems) and
poverty (reduction or exacerbation) nationally and
globally.
■ Incorporate protected areas in National Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and in the
Millennium Development Goals (not just for
MDG7 – Environmental sustainability).
■ Develop mechanisms to integrate the livelihood
security needs of local and indigenous
communities with conservation goals for
protected areas.
■ Form partnerships, oriented towards common and
integrated goals, among conservation and
development organizations.
■ Encourage active participation of environmental
groups in the development of PRSPs at the
national level, highlighting the role of protected
areas in these strategies in particular.
■ Include assessment of the linkages between
protected areas and poverty within the programme
of work of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
■ Undertake routine social impact assessments (that
includes poverty impact assessment) for
establishment, and throughout on-going
management, of protected areas.
■ Recognise the services that ecosystems conserved
through protected areas provide and the role of
these in livelihood protection for local and
indigenous communities.
■ Highlight the nature of these services in national
poverty reduction strategies and the MDGs.
■ Highlight the role of protected areas among other
land-use types, and the complementarity they
provide.
■ Promote involvement, inclusiveness and
transparency in the process of assigning protected
area categories between government agencies and
other stakeholders in order to better position
protected areas within larger land-use planning
contexts.
© Jeffrey A. McNeely
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