PROTECTED AREAS form part of each nation’s strategy for dealing with the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and landscape. These areas vary considerably in their objectives, the extent to which they are integrated into the wider landscape, and the effectiveness with which they are managed. Nevertheless they provide powerful evidence of a nation’s commitment to conservation and sustainable development.
This is one of the reasons why in 1959 the United Nations called on IUCN to establish a list of national parks and equivalent reserves, working in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Information on nationally designated protected areas has been regularly compiled since then, with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) taking an increasing role in recent years. (UNEP did not exist when the original mandate was given).
In 1959 there were no international agreements or programmes that either designated or recognised specific protected areas, although both the 1933 Convention relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State (African Convention) and the 1940 Convention on Nature Protection and Wild Life Preservation in the Western Hemisphere (Western Hemisphere Convention) recognised the importance of protected areas in general terms and encouraged their establishment. However, since then, a range of international agreements and programmes designate or recognise specific protected areas. For example, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention) and the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention) are both concerned with the protection of specific sites, and at least 11 other global and regional agreements and programmes recognise or designate specific protected areas.
Although information on each of these agreements and programmes, and on the sites that they recognise, is readily available, there are few information sources that compile such information in one place, or provide the information in a comparative manner. Consequently it is often difficult for those involved in protected areas management to clearly understand how these different initiatives relate to each other. It is therefore our intention in this edition of Parks to provide information on seven international agreements and programmes in a comparative manner.
It is worth noting that within Europe there is one site, part of which is designated or recognised by all seven initiatives; and many more that are covered by three or more initiatives. Meanwhile nomination and reporting formats and procedures vary widely, even though often the same information is required from the same people. This is why this volume includes an additional paper on harmonisation initiatives and, in particular, issues relating to nomination, information management and reporting.
Jeremy Harrison is coordinator of the Conventions and Policy Support programmes at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Much of his work is currently concerned with the Convention on Biological Diversity and with harmonisation of reporting and information management for international treaties and programmes. He formerly spent many years working on protected areas. E-mail: jerry.harrison@unep-wcmc.org
Karen Simpson works as a consultant on international conventions at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
