Suggested activities of the Parties

• 3.1.1 By 2006, identify legislative and institutional gaps and barriers that impede the effective establishment and management of protected areas, and by 2009, effectively address these gaps and barriers.

• 3.1.2 Conduct national-level assessments of the contributions of protected areas, considering as appropriate environmental services, to the country's economy and culture, and to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the national level; and integrate the use of economic valuation and natural resource accounting tools into national planning processes in order to identify the hidden and non-hidden economic benefits provided by protected areas and who appropriates these benefits.

• 3.1.3 Harmonize sectoral policies and laws to ensure that they support the conservation and effective management of the protected area system.

• 3.1.4 Consider governance principles, such as the rule of law, decentralization, participatory decision-making mechanisms for accountability and equitable dispute resolution institutions and procedures.

• 3.1.5 Identify and remove perverse incentives and inconsistencies in sectoral policies that increase pressure on protected areas, or take action to mitigate their perverse effects. Whenever feasible, redirect these to positive incentives for conservation.
  3.1.6 Identify and establish positive incentives that support the integrity and maintenance of protected areas and the involvement of indigenous and local communities and stakeholders in conservation.
  3.1.7 Adopt legal frameworks to national, regional and sub-national protected areas systems of countries where appropriate.

• 3.1.8 Develop national incentive mechanisms and institutions and legislative frameworks to support the establishment of the full range of protected areas that achieve biodiversity conservation objectives including on private lands and private reserves where appropriate.

• 3.1.9 Identify and foster economic opportunities and markets at local, national and international levels for goods and services produced by protected areas and/or reliant on the ecosystem services that protected areas provide, consistent with protected area objectives and promote the equitable sharing of the benefits.

• 3.1.10 Develop necessary mechanisms for institutions with responsibilities for conservation of biological diversity at the regional, national and local level to achieve institutional and financial sustainability.

• 3.1.11 Cooperate with neighbouring countries to establish an enabling environment for transboundary protected areas and for neighbouring protected areas across national boundaries and other similar approaches including regional networks.

Suggested supporting activities of the Executive Secretary

• 3.1.12 In collaboration with key partners such as OECD, IUCN, WWF and the secretariats of other conventions compile information on relevant guidance, resource kits and other information on incentive measures including those relating to the development of incentive options.

• 3.1.13 Compile and disseminate, through the CHM and other media, case-studies on best practices on the use of incentive measures for the management of protected areas.

• 3.1.14 Compile and disseminate through the CHM and other media best practices on ways and means to integrate the use of incentive measures into protected area management plans, programmes and policies including opportunities for the removal or mitigation of perverse incentives.