Protected Areas

Protected Areas // 4.3 - Monitoring

4.3 - Monitoring

Goal 4.3: To assess and monitor protected area status and trends
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Target:

By 2010, national and regional systems are established to enable effective monitoring of protected-area coverage, status and trends at national, regional and global scales, and to assist in evaluating progress in meeting global biodiversity targets.


Suggested activities of the Parties

  • 4.3.1 Implement national and regional programmes to monitor and assess the status and trends of biodiversity within protected area systems and sites.

  • 4.3.2 Measure progress towards achieving protected area targets based on periodic monitoring and report on progress towards these targets in future national reports under the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as in a thematic report at COP-9.

  • 4.3.3 Improve and update national and regional databases on protected areas and consolidate the World Database on Protected Areas as key support mechanisms in the assessment and monitoring of protected area status and trends.

  • 4.3.4 Participate in the World Database on Protected Areas maintained by UNEP-WCMC, and the United Nations List of Protected Areas and the State of the World's Protected Areas assessment process.

  • 4.3.5 Encourage the establishment and establishment use of new technologies including geographic information system and remote sensing tools for monitoring protected areas.

Suggested supporting activities of the Executive Secretary

  • 4.3.6 Develop and consolidate working partnerships with appropriate organizations and institutions that have developed and maintained monitoring systems and databases on protected areas, in particular with the UNEP-WCMC and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

  • 4.3.7 Explore establishment of a harmonized system and time schedule for reporting on sites designated under the Convention on Wetlands, the World Heritage Convention, and UNESCO MAB programme, and other regional systems, as appropriate, taking into account the ongoing work of UNEP-WCMC on harmonization of reporting and the IUCN protected area management category system for reporting purpose.

  • 4.3.8 Prepare an updated format for the thematic report on protected areas covering, inter alia, integration of protected areas and national systems of protected areas into relevant sectors and spatial planning taking into account decision VII/25 on national reporting.

Key activities include:

  • Implement programmes to monitor and assess the status and trends of biodiversity within protected area systems and sites
  • Measure and report progress toward protected area targets
  • Improve national and regional databases on protected areas
  • Participate in the World Database on Protected Areas
  • Encourage the use of geographic information systems and remote sensing

What is an assessment of protected area status and trends?

An assessment of protected area status typically includes an assessment of a) the health and viability of key species and ecoystems; b) the extent and severity of threats facing key species and ecosystems; and c) the management effectiveness within protected areas. Combined, these three aspects can provide protected area managers with an overall snapshot of effective conservation of species and ecosystems within protected areas. An assessment of trends includes an analysis of how the status snapshot has changed over time, and is likely to continue to change in the future.

What does it mean to measure progress toward protected area targets?

Protected area targets are specific goals related to individual species and ecosystems within protected areas (e.g., goals regarding the population, health and viability for species and ecosystems within each protected area); and related to the protected area as a whole (e.g., goals regarding the extent and distribution of protection that is needed for key species and ecosystems across the country). Measuring progress towards these protected area targets usually means establishing a national database of key species and ecosystems, and periodically monitoring how well protected area sites, and the system as a whole, are achieving those goals.

What is a geographic information system (GIS) and what is remote sensing?

A geographic information system (GIS) is any system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that are linked to a specific location. GIS has become one of the most important technologies in protected area management planning, ecological gap assessments and monitoring. Remote sensing is the process of collecting data using devices that are physically separated from the protected area. Examples include aircraft, spacecraft, satellite, buoy, or ship. Remote sensing allows protected area managers to monitor sites within a protected area that inaccessible. One of the simplest tools for remote sensing is the free program Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/intl/en/). By incorporating multiple levels of data, including remote sensing data, into a single geographic information system, protected area managers can monitor forest cover, develop coarse-level resource inventories, identify landscape linkages and potential conservation corridors, develop appropriate zones, and conduct many other fundamental management activities.

What is the World Database on protected areas?

The World Database on Protected Areas is a global project of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) that tracks key information on the world’s protected areas. To visit the site, click on www.wdpa.org, or to correspond with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre on issues related to protected areas, please click on http://www.unep-wcmc.org/protected_areas/protected_areas.htm.



External forum

Protected areas and management

For those interested in protected area management and management planning.

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E-learning module

Module 15: Monitoring

This module covers aspects related to monitoring (PoWPA Goal 4.3), including how to monitor biodiversity status and strategy effectiveness.

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External forum
For those interested in protected area management and management planning.
Themes:3.3 Appropriate technology,3.5 Education and awareness,1.4 Management planning and climate change adaptation,4.1 Minimum standards and best practices,1.5 Protected area threats and restoration,4.2 Management effectiveness assessments,4.3 Monitoring,4.4 Research
5/8/2010
Assessment methodology
This publication is a proposed new baseline and monitoring methodologies for A/R (CDM-AR-NM). (37 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
4/15/20101024 Kb
Report
It's a report about Tracking the Impact of Policy Strategies in Conservation Work. (29 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring,3.1 Enabling policy and legal environment
Topics:Monitoring,Policy environment
4/15/20101024 Kb
Brochure
This publication is about Improved Pan-European Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management. (6 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Sustainable use,Monitoring
4/14/2010551 Kb
Report
A Review of Methodologies and Recommendations for Developing Monitoring Programs in Latin America. (56 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring,Tourism
4/13/2010439 Kb
Report
It's a report about monitoring package for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. (80 pages).
Themes:4.2 Management effectiveness assessments,4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Management effectiveness
4/13/2010944 Kb
Article
An article about measuring and monitoring biodiversity for conservation science and adaptive management-Smithsonian Institution. (14 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
4/13/201061 Kb
Brochure
It's a short brochure about monitoring conservation project effectiveness. (4 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
4/12/2010440 Kb
Assessment methodology
It's an article about methods for evaluating ecosystem integrity and monitoring ecosystem response. (21 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring,1.1 Ecological network and gap assessments
Topics:Monitoring
4/12/2010458 Kb
Article
It's an article about measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets. (13 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
4/12/2010154 Kb
It's a training manual about core concepts in planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&amp;E) of project in IUCN. (42 pages). Published by IUCN.
Themes:3.5 Education and awareness,4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Conservation planning,Training and curricula,Monitoring
4/1/2010679 Kb
Report
It's a report about designing and implementing comprehensive long-term inventory and monitoring programs for national park system lands. (19 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
3/31/201052 Kb
Article
It's an article about an adaptative system to link science, monitoring and management in practice. (13 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring,4.4 Research
Topics:Adaptive management,Monitoring
3/30/20101024 Kb
Report
It's a summary of a report about biodiversity monitoring in the rangelands. (23 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
3/18/20102048 Kb
Report
It's a report about comprehensive protected areas system composition and monitoring. (112 pages). Published by IUCN.
Themes:1.1 Ecological network and gap assessments,4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
3/17/20103072 Kb
Report
It's a practical guide on how monitoring can support effective management of MPAs. (72 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Marine,Monitoring
3/13/20104096 Kb
Comprehensive guide
It's a booklet about biodiversity indicators for national use. (20 pages). UNEP-WCMC
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
3/13/2010312 Kb
It's a guide about using results chains to improve stategy effectiveness. (17 pages). Published by fondations of success.
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring,Conservation planning
3/13/2010580 Kb
Report
It's a report about conservation management and ecological monitoring in Madagascar's Protected areas. (43 pages).
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring,Conservation planning
3/12/20102048 Kb
Comprehensive guide
It's a guide about cross-roads of life on earth ; Exploring means to meet the 2010 Biodiversity Target. Published by CBD. (No 31). (92 pages)
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
3/4/201010240 Kb
Presentation
It's a presentation about landscape scale steppe and species conservation
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
10/30/20092048 Kb
Presentation
It's a presentation about the step 8, monitoring status and effectiveness
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
10/30/2009120 Kb
Comprehensive guide
A 36-page guide on best practice guidelines for surveys and monitoring of great ape populations. Kuhl et al. 2008
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
8/26/20091024 Kb
Report
A 16-page report on trends in biodiversity loss, produced by Ben Collen et al. Publication of WWF, the Zoological Society of London and the Global Footprint Network.
Themes:4.3 Monitoring
Topics:Monitoring
8/2/20091024 Kb
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Record 1 to 25 of 39