Side Event
Social Assessment of Protected Areas and its relevance to the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas
Organizer
IUCN-TILCEPA, CARE International, IIED, UNEP-WCMC
Date and Time
20 May 2010 13:15 - 14:45
The review of the CBD Programme of Work on PAs highlights lack of progress in achieving targets on equity and benefit sharing (goal 2.1) and recommends increased emphasis on assessing and valuing costs and benefits of PAs. Also highlighted is the need to promote a better understanding of the role of PAs in sustaining local livelihoods. Furthermore, analysis of management effectiveness assessments shows a strong correlation between attention to social issues and management effectiveness. Yet despite this growing interest in, and concern for, the social dimensions of PA conservation, no standard methodologies exist to assess the positive and negative social impacts of protected areas. The Social Assessment of Protected Areas (SAPA) initiative was established to address this need with a specific emphasis on rapid, low cost methodologies. This side event presents the work of the SAPA initiative to date including a recent review of 30 different methodologies that have been, or could be, used to assess the social impacts of PAs. The event aims to demonstrate that assessment of social impacts is a practical proposition, and one that is key to meeting both social equity and management effectiveness targets.