Program of Work

Next week IUCN members will approve a program of work for the next four years, a broad vision modified slightly from the current plan, and cross-referenced with the United Nations Development Goals. The Steering Committee of the World Commission on Protected Areas spent a long morning Wednesday walking through a more detailed program of work on PAs through 2020. (This is also the end date of the current targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, critical to the protected areas agenda.) The Commission program marries strategic ambitions to practical realities of human and financial resources. The basic framework was set at the World Parks Congress two years ago, but some new issues came up today:

• Replicating work on Key Biodiversity Areas to identify areas needing protection for the ecosystem services they provide;
• Growing concern about and activism against those protected areas that do not respect the rights of indigenous peoples, and the need for WCPA to address the issues directly and equitably;
• Need to look beyond 2020 and setting of new targets for global conservation.

The protected areas program of work will be finalized a few weeks after the World Conservation Congress.

The World Commission on Protected Areas has over 2,700 expert members worldwide. It works though 24 specialist groups and task forces supported by a small staff at the IUCN Global Protected Areas Programme.