26 July 2012: A draft toolkit on governance of protected areas has been developed by several partners in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and is open for review. The purpose of the toolkit is to facilitate the development of institutional and individual capacity for all those involved in the governance and management of protected areas.

The toolkit: introduces key concepts and issues; offers an approach and method for assessing the governance of protected area systems and individual protected areas; provides guidance for national initiatives designed to generate awareness and motivation on protected area governance; provides a space for dialogue and planning of national assessment processes; and provides an initial list of resource materials. According to the CBD, learning and better practice are expected through improved understanding and application of key concepts, by conducting governance assessments and evaluations, and incorporating their findings into ongoing work.

To produce the toolkit, the CBD Secretariat worked with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Protected Areas Programme, the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and the Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCA) Consortium.

Comments on the draft toolkit should be submitted to the CBD Secretariat before 20 August 2012. The finalized version will be published by IUCN under its Best Practice Guidelines series, ahead of the IUCN World Conservation Congress and the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the CBD. [CBD Notification] [Publication: Governance of Protected Areas: From Understanding to Action – Draft for Comments]