Many Pacific coral reefs are being damaged by habitat disturbance, pollution, fishing and climate change. Climate change is believed to be the greatest human-induced threat to corals in the Pacific region. The region needs an action plan to make cohesive decisions that will benefit coral reefs. This will enable leaders of Pacific Island countries, coral-reef managers and community members to coordinate their efforts to protect these valuable ecosystems.
The Integrated Management Effectiveness Tool (IMET) is an approach to support protected areas planning, monitoring and evaluation and to improve management patterns and conservation outcomes. IMET is supported by a computer-based application that collects, organizes and analyses data to facilitate informed decision-making for protected area management, operations and planning. The tool is available in both online and offline versions.
The expedition was conducted by KSLOF, a US-based nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to providing science-based solutions to protect and restore ocean health. Starting as early as 2001, the foundation conducted field research to survey and map coral reefs to aid in coral conservation efforts. These research missions culminated in the Global Reef Expedition, which brought together an international team of over 200 scientists, educators, photographers, and filmmakers who circumnavigated the globe surveying some of the most remote coral reefs in the world.
Expanding the global protected area network is critical for addressing biodiversity declines and the climate crisis. However, how climate change will affect ecosystem representation within the protected area network remains unclear. Here we use spatial climate analogs to examine potential climate-driven shifts in terrestrial ecoregions and biomes under a +2 °C warming scenario and associated implications for achieving 30% area-based protection targets.
People live in nature. However, substantial evidence confirms that, under the pressure of anthropogenic alteration, nature is being fragmented, imperiled and becoming less able to provide essential services. Biodiversity loss is the most significant signal of this depletion, and could profoundly impact the future of human beings and the rest of life on Earth. Against this background, Parties of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed a 2011–2020 Strategic Plan and 20 Aichi Targets to halt continuing biodiversity loss.
Setting targets for addressing major planetary concerns is an essential prerequisite for concerted global action (both inside and outside multilateral environmental agreements) and is necessarily a societal and political process, requiring negotiation and convergence among oftenconflicting interests. There is no such thing as a ‘scientific target’ applied in policy or business—operational targets are socio-political choices. However, this is not to say that targets cannot be ‘science-based’.
This guidance document aims to build awareness, knowledge, and capacity internationally on how to best undertake economic evaluations of tourism in protected areas, and thereby contribute towards a globally acknowledged standard methodology. We believe that it will serve as a key resource for protected area managers, site managers and their respective natural and cultural heritage agencies, practitioners, academia and consultancies, as well as international stakeholders and donor agencies.
This brief seeks to bring clarity to the question of what could count toward the 30% global minimum target. within the context of recognized area-based conservation measures and their ability to deliver positive long-term conservation outcomes. It is based on guidance from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other published sources, and is consistent with decisions of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
This publication has been developed as a contribution to Phase II of the Two-phase Strategy on Protected Areas of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and prepared pursuant to various paragraphs of COP decision XIII/2 on protected areas, in particular paragraph 5(a-e), and paragraph 10 of decision XI/24.
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a“Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species).