1.Front section - IUCN

9
Friends for Life: New partners in support of protected areas
responses – in order to “implement sustainable
development” and “equitable cost and benefit sharing”
in protected areas. Scientific argumentation should, and
will, remain a basic principle of protected area planning
and management. Indeed, it can and should serve to
fully recognise indigenous concerns through clear and
transparent problem identification, impact assessment,
strategy feasibility studies and effectiveness evaluations.
Finally, indigenous knowledge is no longer seen as in
contradiction to scientific approaches. Rather its value in
identifying critical species, habitat and ecological
linkages and processes is being strengthened as well as
its role in identifying locally appropriate management
responses.
The IUCN protected area category system can also
help build conservation alliances with indigenous
peoples, if properly understood and applied. For
example, when identifying major protection gaps in
Australian bioregions, many were found to overlap
with aboriginal lands and waters. In response, efforts
such as the establishment of an Indigenous Peoples
Protected Areas Program, sought to accommodate
cultural priorities, while linking protection efforts to
the National Reserve System. When establishing such
Indigenous Protected Areas, aboriginal communities
review and apply the IUCN Protected Area
Categories. Nantawarrina, for example, established by
the Nepabunna community, is a protected area
declared under four IUCN Protected Area
Management categories (II, IV, V and VI).
Adopting new governance approaches
including community-driven and comanaged
protected areas
Durban emphasised the growing presence and
recognition of community-conserved areas and comanagement
as effective management strategies in a
renewed emphasis on good governance of protected
areas. While such overall general typologies may make
sense in some countries, most countries will require
tailoring policy options to fully reflect particular
governance characteristics. This typically requires
Mbutu pygmy village in Ituri forest, Okapi Fauna Reserve, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
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