1.Front section - IUCN

A taxonomy of support: how and why new constituencies are supporting protected areas 1
frameworks appropriate to their country that will
allow consistent and realistic goals to be developed
and met, with a clear distribution of costs and
benefits; for example, tax breaks or other economic
incentives for contributions to protected areas could
generate greater private sector support. Because
countries are highly diverse in size, complexity,
ideology, and economic orientation, region-wide
policies may tend to be very general. As pointed out
by the Convention on Biological Diversity, each
government needs to determine for itself how best to
carry out the broad objectives for which protected
areas have been established, and how it wishes to
involve the private sector. But it is clear that such
policies must be based on an integrated view of the
economy, society, and the environment, incorporating
good science and assessment of risk and an
appropriate balance of ecological, economic, and
social objectives.
Genetic resources
Protected areas potentially can provide benefits in the
form of genetic resources to the pharmaceutical,
biotechnology, agrochemical, seed, horticulture,
cosmetic, and phyto-medical markets, but these
different markets give rise to a wide range of
approaches to benefit-sharing. Creating expensive
bureaucratic regulatory systems, for example to
implement the genetic resources provisions of the
Convention on Biological Diversity (Articles 15 and
16), could act as a disincentive to investment by the
industries that have the greatest potential interest in the
biological resources held by protected areas. One
approach is through the use of intermediaries,
including botanic gardens, universities, research
institutions, NGOs, and even commercial brokers who
will collect, identify, and guarantee re-supply of
promising materials, acquire government approval for
collections, broker benefit-sharing agreements, and
Weyerhaeuser Company
tree farm in the Pacific
Northwest, USA near
the Mount Saint Helens
National Park.
Weyerhaeuser plants
more than 100,000,000
tree seedlings each year
around the world.
© Jason Anderson/Conservation International
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