Guidelines for Planning and Managing Mountain Protected Areas

Prefacecriteria for selection, though this has witnessed dramatic improvement of late. The suite ofbiodiversity of mountain areas was not captured by protecting mainly the pointy bits – summitsof snow and ice and rock. Nor was the need for accommodating climate change, providingplaces to which migration is possible for displaced flora and fauna.These Guidelines for Mountain Protected Areas (hereafter often referred to as MtPAs) are anupdate and revision of a set of 161 guidelines published in 1992. These were the synthesisedoutput of an expert consultation workshop held in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, andorganized by Lawrence Hamilton and Jim Thorsell. 3 To those participants in the 1991 Parks,Peaks, and People Workshop we express our gratitude, for we have used much material fromthat publication. This new manual has benefited from the dedicated work of participants in apre-World Parks Congress workshop held in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, 5–8September 2003. Those 59 participants from 23 countries are listed in Appendix 2, and wethank them sincerely for their expert contributions.The workshop was made possible largely through funding by a GEF grant to IUCN,augmented by support from The Nature Conservancy, The World Bank, University of Aquila,and University of Torino, Global Environment Facility, and TransGrid (Australia). It washosted by KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife at Cathedral Peak in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg WorldHeritage Site.We hope that the guidelines will be a catalyst for national and site-specific strategies thatmust follow if we are to have harmonious and effective management of MtPAs with myriad“benefits beyond boundaries” around the world.Lawrence S. HamiltonVice-Chair (Mountains)WCPA342 Bittersweet LaneCharlotte, Vermont 05445,USALinda McMillanAccess and Conservation Commission ofthe International Mountaineering andClimbing Federation (UIAA)721 Appleberry DriveSan Rafael, California 94903, USAJanuary 20043Poore, D. (Ed.) 1992. Guidelines for Mountain Protected Areas. IUCN Protected Area ProgrammeSeries No. 2. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.xi