Suggested activities of the Parties

• 3.5.1 Establish or strengthen strategies and programmes of education and public awareness on the importance of protected areas in terms of their role in biodiversity conservation and sustainable socio-economic development, in close collaboration with the Communication, Education and Public Awareness Initiative (CEPA) under the Convention on Biological Diversity and targeted towards all stakeholders.

• 3.5.2 Identify core themes for education, awareness and communication programmes relevant to protected areas, including inter alia their contribution to economy and culture to achieve specific end results such as compliance by resource users and other stakeholders or an increased understanding of science-based knowledge by indigenous and local communities and policy makers and an increased understanding of the needs, priorities and value of indigenous and local communities' knowledge, innovations and practices by Governments, non-Governmental organizations and other relevant stakeholders.

• 3.5.3 Strengthen, and where necessary, establish information mechanisms directed at target groups such as the private sector, policy makers, development institutions, community-based organizations, the youth, the media, and the general public.

• 3.5.4 Develop mechanisms for constructive dialogue and exchange of information and experiences among protected-area managers, and between protected area managers and indigenous and local communities and their organizations and other environment educators and actors.

• 3.5.5 Incorporate the subject of protected areas as an integral component of the school curricula as well as in informal education.

• 3.5.6 Establish mechanism and evaluate the impacts of communication, education and public awareness programmes on biodiversity conservation to ensure that they improve public awareness, change behaviour and support the achievement of protected area objectives.

Suggested supporting activities of the Executive Secretary

• 3.5.7 Collaborate with IUCN and other relevant organizations to collect and disseminate educational tools and materials for adaptation and use in the promotion of protected areas as an important means of achieving the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

• 3.5.8 Establish, in collaboration with the IUCN and other relevant partners, an initiative to engage the global news and entertainment industry (television, film, popular music, internet, etc.) in a global campaign to raise awareness of the consequences of biological diversity loss and the important role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation.