The world’s more than 200 000 protected areas come in many forms, on land and at sea, and occur in every country (Bertzky et al. 2012). They are places that people establish to conserve natural and cultural heritage and to sustain their benefits for society. Among other values, protected areas allow people to connect with nature for their inspiration, education, wellbeing and recreation. While protecting ecosystems that are essential for life, they can support human livelihoods and aspirations and offer nature-based solutions for the complex challenges faced by the world today. Contemporary systems of protected areas include a great variety...

Protected areas are land and sea uses of great importance for life and a healthy environment on Earth, for the protection of heritage and for the direct and indirect benefits they provide for most peoples on Earth. They are inspirational and transformative destinations for millions of people worldwide every year. They have been established over 15.4 per cent of the Earth’s terrestrial area (outside Antarctica) and 3.4 per cent of its marine area (IUCN and UNEP-WCMC 2014), and are supported by 193 parties (nations) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as well as other nations. Effectively managed protected areas...

Protected areas are the places where we aim to retain the extraordinary beauty and richness of the Earth and all its benefits to humanity—the evolutionary heritage of more than four billion years and for all we know unique in the vastness of the universe. They may include grand scenery; remarkable animals and plants; precipitous mountains; spectacular formation-rich caves; grand towering forests; dramatic plunging waterfalls; immense wetlands and lakes; vast deserts; and untouched coastlines, deep ocean mounts and expansive coral reefs. They can also hold landscapes of great beauty and cultural values, created by human communities over time and through...

Earth is a very special place. It may seem large, maybe even infinite in size, but when viewing images captured by remote robots from Mars early in the 21st century, we quickly appreciate how Earth is just one bright dot in a vast expanse of space. From Mars, Earth is dwarfed by an immensity of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Universe beyond, and images like these are what help us appreciate that Earth really is a finite ark of life. Earth hosts extraordinary natural wonders, formed over 4.5 billion years of geological and evolutionary change. It is a dynamic...

Earth’s seven billion people and their forebears have left, and are continuing to leave, a rich legacy of their cultural activities, values and beliefs. This collective cultural heritage goes back hundreds of thousands of years and takes many forms, from an ancient stone flake to the remains of a city, to a song. It has resonance at all scales, from intensely personal, to the crux of a national identity, to an international icon.

The existence of protected areas is a cultural legacy in itself. Gazettal of America’s Yellowstone National Park in 1872 formalised recognition of protected areas, but for thousands...

This chapter explores trends in societal values, human rights and economics that have shaped how protected areas are understood, valued, managed and governed. The chapter highlights some of the contradictory social and economic trends that may define the future of protected area policymaking, governance and integrity.

The function of the chapter is to locate protected areas in a broader societal and policy context and give consideration to the role of public perception, values, norms and commitment to ensuring that conservation aims, including the effective use of protected areas, are supported by social, economic and political processes that may not at...

Protected areas are places where conscious efforts are made to preserve not only wild species, but also the ecosystems in which species live. In parts of the world where most of the landscape has already been transformed by agriculture or industry, protected areas may be the only natural or near natural ecosystems remaining for large areas. The wider socioeconomic and cultural values of these natural ecosystems are increasingly being recognised, as are the important ecosystem services they provide (see Box 6.1). Until recently these services have often been taken so much for granted that their values have been underestimated, forgotten...

In many cultures, humans perceive themselves as capable of developing cogent decisions about what to do with nature and implementing those decisions through skilful and technology-enriched means. Other cultures see decisions about nature as arising from the spiritual and ancestral beings who are part of nature, and affect us much more than we are able to affect them. Some people perceive nature as benign and sacred, to be treated with reverence and moderation. Others see it as a condition of life, which needs to be dominated and controlled. Still others sense it as an inscrutable phenomenon controlling us from within:...

‘Managing protected areas’ is a fundamental chapter for protected area practitioners and policymakers. As with governance (Chapter 7), it is a basic building block of supporting information essential for the professional management of protected areas. This chapter primarily focuses on large protected area management organisations including government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private organisations. In adopting this focus, we recognise that for many Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs), management is less formal, with planning undocumented and part of everyday decisions by communities that are evolving, informal and intuitive (Kothari, pers. comm.). The principles and practices described...

Today’s protected areas are becoming increasingly complex institutions that require a competent, motivated and adequately resourced workforce that has access to the most current ideas and best practices developed through decades of lesson learning around the world. Many protected area directors, managers and staff, however, lack the necessary range of competencies to ensure the effective and equitable management of these areas, and they have limited capacity for sustained and adaptive organisational management. Despite being responsible for the complex management of a significant proportion of the world’s natural capital, protected area management is still not recognised in many countries as a...

As our knowledge grows, technology advances, human populations increase and demands on our natural resources deepen and diversify, we realise that there is no longer an opportunity to avoid or ignore the complexity of protected area management, its governance and its role within the intersection of social-ecological systems. While we all engage complexity every day at a personal level, it is not a skill set that most of us are trained to use in a professional capacity. In fact, we spend considerable portions of our life learning how to simplify the overwhelming amount of information and complicated character of problems...

Decisions are made about protected area management every day. Decision-making can occur at different scales, including local, national or global, and by a range of different actors, such as site managers, planners or policymakers, politicians, business managers or funding bodies. In order to make good decisions, all these actors require access to quality data and information to understand and mitigate threats and pressures affecting protected areas and the implications of those threats for biodiversity, ecosystem services and the human communities they support. This chapter focuses on knowledge generation, acquisition and management, with particular reference to protected areas. Very often the...

This chapter addresses a subject that in principle might appear not to have a direct relation with protected areas because its scope normally refers to private business administration or public affairs. Nevertheless, it is absolutely clear that now, more than ever, strong and firm leadership is essential to achieve the effective conservation of protected areas around the world. Leadership is required in order to direct the course of the institution in charge of protected area management. It is also required for planning, for providing direction, for guiding and inspiring protected area staff and for defining and promoting conservation. It is...

Planning involves deciding on a future desired state and the course of action to get there. In its simplest form, the purpose of planning is to establish how to get from where we are today (here) to where we want to be tomorrow (there). In order to do this we need to be clear about where we are, where we want to get to and our proposed path to get there. It is something that most of us do every day and it is a key function of management.

Concepts such as ecosystem services, resilience and connectivity conservation are bringing...

This chapter explores the demands on, and opportunities provided to, protected area managers when engaging with individuals, communities and organisations whose interests intersect with protected area management. The first section notes the emergence of collaborative arrangements in resource and environmental management and how these apply to protected area management. Then general principles applying to engagement and public participation are introduced. The last four sections explore four questions: withwhomprotected area managers engage;whythese individuals and groups engage with protected area management, and their values and motivations;how, or the forms of and strategies for engagement and participation; and...

No matter where you are in the world the media will always play a critical role in the long-term management of protected areas, so it will pay to know how it works and how effective management of the media will help you achieve your conservation objectives.

Before you start to think about how to manage the media in the pursuit of your goal to communicate important messages to a broad audience, there is a very important caveat to consider. Do not be deceived into thinking that the mass media alone is a communication tool separate to other channels around you....

Protected areasinter aliaaim to support the persistence of biodiversity and the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. While the definition of protected areas (see Chapter 2) may be interpreted in more than one way, the concept of protected areas has been adopted by countries across the world and adapted according to their specific national or local contexts. Protected areas do perform important conservation functions and protect biodiversity, especially from indiscriminate destruction; however, even when protected areas appear to be maintaining their values, they may be undergoing imperceptible changes and declines, leading to ‘half-empty forests’ with loss of biodiversity...

In the early part of the 21st century, evidence for the overall warming of the Earth’s climate system due to human-generated greenhouse gas pollution of the atmosphere is unequivocal. The leading international body for the scientific assessment of climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has reported that ‘changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across the oceans’ (IPCC 2014a:6). The average of global surface temperatures for land and ocean increased by 0.85°C between 1880 and 2012, and the global mean surface temperature increased by 0.12°C per decade between 1951...

The Earth is a dynamic planet with a remarkable geodiversity. The continental masses and oceans on the surface of the Earth have changed continuously over much of geological time. Oceans have opened and closed, and continents have fragmented and collided, accompanied by plutonic igneous activity, volcanism and large-scale crustal deformation. Earth’s abiotic processes have operated both continuously and episodically over vastly different time scales, from hundreds of millions of years to minutes, and over different spatial scales, from whole continental plates to the microscopic. Mountain ranges have formed and been eroded, and the rock debris deposited and recycled. As the...

Better practices for managing inland aquatic ecosystems in protected areas—including rivers, other brackish and freshwater ecosystems, and coastal estuaries—are the focus of this chapter. Most natural protected areas are designated as ‘terrestrial’ or ‘marine’, and the obvious question for most managers is ‘why should I worry about the (usually) small portion of my protected area that involves freshwater habitat’.

On the contrary, in this chapter, we argue that freshwater and estuarine habitats are significant for conserving biodiversity in most land-based protected areas and that managers need to apply the freshwater-specific conservation tools outlined here to do a good...

Globally, the protection of marine areas has been a comparatively recent initiative compared with the use of protected areas for terrestrial conservation and resource management. Oceans cover 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface and contain 97 per cent of the Earth’s water. They drive climate and weather, regulate temperature, generate much of the oxygen in the atmosphere, absorb much of the carbon dioxide, and replenish freshwater to both land and sea through the formation of clouds. Oceans make up more than 90 per cent of the planet’s biologically useful habitat and contain most of the life on Earth, including...

Protected areas are the cornerstones of global efforts to conserve biodiversity. Biological diversity (biodiversity) and ecosystem functions are the fundamental components of any ecosystem (Box 21.1) that protected area managers must consider to be successful. This chapter looks at the relationship between biological diversity and ecological function, the threats to each, and how to assess and monitor ecosystems.

Increasingly, protected areas are the last places left for much of the planet’s biodiversity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species that have a high risk of global extinction reveals that many of these species are...

In this chapter, we explore the administration of cultural uses and the management of cultural features within protected areas. Our review emphasises some of the emerging shifts in thinking about cultural heritage, such as the integration of the protection of natural and cultural objectives, emerging conservation paradigms of cultural landscapes and biocultural diversity, and the growing attention being paid to the role of indigenous peoples and local communities in stewardship of protected areas. We also discuss principles and practices applicable to management of cultural features, including built heritage and places of religious significance.

Humans use the modern protected area system...

There are many different types of visitors to protected areas. They may be official guests to a national park; researchers working in a strict nature reserve; volunteers assisting with a national park work program; educational groups learning about special natural or cultural heritage; or people who conduct their business within a protected area including contractors and shop owners. Importantly, visitors also include tourists and recreationists. In this chapter, we briefly examine the types of visitors protected area managers may need to deal with and management considerations associated with such visitor use. We, however, provide a focus on tourism and its...

Setting aside areas for conservation is a great start for the protection of nature and culture and visitor enjoyment, but the land does not manage itself. Most protected areas require active management as they will most likely have experienced some human activity that impacts on natural processes; they will have an aim for visitors to experience and learn about the environment and will involve communities living in or around the area. Proactive and effective protected area management involves being responsive through carrying out a range of operational activities as appropriate to meet the objectives established for the area. Good stewardship...

Resource use and development activities of various kinds are commonplace in and around protected areas. These have various impacts on conservation values, are related in diverse ways to the lives and livelihoods of local peoples and other sections of society, and are being dealt with in varying ways in protected area governance and management. This chapter provides a broad sweep of the experience with resource use and development within and adjacent to protected areas.

The first major section of the chapter deals with resource use. It is generally recognised that sustainable use of ecosystems and biological resources can play an...

Natural or human-caused incidents regrettably are common events in protected areas. Our aim in this chapter is to help prepare protected area practitioners to deal with such incidents. We do this by describing common incident types, how climate change is influencing the nature of incidents, pre-incident planning and preparation that may be undertaken, the actual management of incidents (using globally accepted systems for multi-organisation responses) and a description of post-incident follow-up requirements.

Our approach in this chapter has been to describe incident management in the context of moderate to high Human Development Index (HDI) country responses to protected area incidents....

As the global human population grows rapidly past the seven billion mark, the overexploitation of our planet goes on unabated to such an extent that there is now unequivocal evidence that Earth is experiencing the sixth major mass extinction of species in its evolutionary history (Wilson 1992, 2002), that warming of the global climate system is occurring and that this is almost certainly attributable to human activities (IPCC 2013). The global destruction and fragmentation of habitats resulting in the parcelling up of landscapes have been caused by human population growth and development activities. This has resulted in the sixth mass...

As far back as 1746, the British statesman Philip Stanhope gave his son the advice that ‘whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well’ (Widger 2012). It is advice we could well follow today in managing the growing network of protected areas around the world. Earlier in this book, the changing paradigm of protected areas and the spectacular growth in the number and coverage of protected areas have been documented. We have clearly decided that protected areas are ‘worth doing’ and we have abundant advice on how to manage them well, as is evident in the preceding chapters...

This book has demonstrated that protected areas make a significant contribution to the conservation of the Earth’s biodiversity, geodiversity and cultural heritage. They help to maintain ecological processes and functions that are essential for the health and wellbeing of ecosystems and people, and they mitigate the impacts of climate change. They are an intergenerational investment. At a time when human impacts on Earth are rapidly increasing and as pressures on the world’s species and ecosystems intensify, protected areas are subject to ever more threats and demands for unsustainable use—and they are becoming increasingly important.

Although protected areas are now...