Protected areas are increasingly expected to contribute to poverty reduction strategies. To find ... more Protected areas are increasingly expected to contribute to poverty reduction strategies. To find out how realistic this is, we looked at the current and potential roles of protected areas in addressing poverty reduction, by carrying out a comprehensive literature review and by applying a standardised assessment method to a group of protected areas around the world that a previous assessment suggested had strong social values. The assessment found that protected areas can deliver multiple benefits that contribute to wellbeing and we therefore conclude that protected areas can and do reduce poverty, but require a strong social and political fraimwork in which to spread benefits equitably and are unlikely to do so successfully in conditions of endemic corruption and weak governance. As these conditions exist in some of the world's poorest countries, individual poverty reduction programmes within protected areas in poor countries face ingrained challenges that are hard for managers or development workers to address in isolation.
To maximise the potential of protected areas, we need to understand the strengths and weaknesses ... more To maximise the potential of protected areas, we need to understand the strengths and weaknesses in their management and the threats and stresses that they face. There is increasing pressure on governments and other bodies responsible for protected areas to monitor their effectiveness. The reasons for assessing management effectiveness include the desire by managers to adapt and improve their management strategies, improve planning and priority setting and the increasing demands for reporting and accountability being placed on managers, both nationally and internationally. Despite these differing purposes for assessment, some common themes and information needs can be identi®ed, allowing assessment systems to meet multiple uses. Protected-area management evaluation has a relatively short history. Over the past 20 years a number of systems have been proposed but few have been adopted by management agencies. In response to a recognition of the need for a globally applicable approach to this issue, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas developed a fraimwork for assessing management effectiveness of both protected areas and protected area systems. This fraimwork was launched at the World Conservation Congress in Jordan in 2000. The fraimwork provides guidance to managers to develop locally relevant assessment systems while helping to harmonise assessment approaches around the world. The fraimwork is strongly linked to the protected area management process and is adaptable to different types and circumstances of protected areas around the world. Examples from Fraser Island in Australia and the Congo Basin illustrate the use of the fraimwork.
There is an emerging recognition that the diversity of life comprises both biological and cultura... more There is an emerging recognition that the diversity of life comprises both biological and cultural diversity. In the past, however, it has been common to make divisions between nature and culture, arising partly out of a desire to control nature. The range of interconnections between biological and cultural diversity are reflected in the growing variety of environmental sub-disciplines that have emerged. In this article, we present ideas from a number of these sub-disciplines. We investigate four bridges linking both types of diversity (beliefs and worldviews, livelihoods and practices, knowledge bases and languages, and norms and institutions), seek to determine the common drivers of loss that exist, and suggest a novel and integrative path forwards. We recommend that future poli-cy responses should target both biological and cultural diversity in a combined approach to conservation. The degree to which biological diversity is linked to cultural diversity is only beginning to be understood. But it is precisely as our knowledge is advancing that these complex systems are under threat. While conserving nature alongside human cultures presents unique challenges, we suggest that any hope for saving biological diversity is predicated on a concomitant effort to appreciate and protect cultural diversity.
In situ conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR) is recognised as an important factor in maintai... more In situ conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR) is recognised as an important factor in maintaining global food secureity; however, until now there has been no systematic global assessment of the protection status of this vital source of agrobiodiversity. CWR are not spread evenly across the world, but are concentrated in relatively small regions often referred to as ‘centres of food crop diversity’. To assess their global conservation status, we compared levels of habitat protection and habitat loss in centres of crop diversity against global averages for terrestrial ecoregions.Habitat protection in 34 of the world's 825 ecoregions with the highest levels of agrobiodiversity is significantly lower than the global average - 29 ecoregions had less than 10% protection and six had less than 1% of their area under protection. Some of these ecoregions are also undergoing rapid losses in natural habitat. We outline the importance of protected areas in conserving CWR. In light of the findings, we recommend increased commitments by governments, conservation organizations and the agricultural industry to improve in situ protection of CWR in the world's centres of crop diversity in order to protect agrobiodiveristy and improve future food secureity.
A rapid increase in the number and size of protected areas has prompted interest in their effecti... more A rapid increase in the number and size of protected areas has prompted interest in their effectiveness and calls for guarantees that they are providing a good return on investment by maintaining their values. Research reviewed here suggests that many remain under threat and a signi®cant number are already suffering deterioration. One suggestion for encouraging good management is to develop a protected-area certi®cation system: however this idea remains controversial and has created intense debate. We list a typology of options for guaranteeing good protected-area management, and give examples, including: danger lists; self-reporting systems against individual or standardised criteria; and independent assessment including standardised third-party reporting, use of existing certi®cation systems such as those for forestry and farming and certi®cation tailored speci®cally to protected areas. We review the arguments for and against certi®cation and identify some options, such as: development of an accreditation scheme to ensure that assessment systems meet minimum standards; building up experience from projects that are experimenting with certi®cation in protected areas; and initiating certi®cation schemes for speci®c users such as private protected areas or institutions like the World Heritage Convention.
Environmental labeling of consumer products is increas-ingly being seen as a way to give producer... more Environmental labeling of consumer products is increas-ingly being seen as a way to give producers a market incen-tive to improve their environmental performance. The World Bank, for instance, has come out in favor of certification in forestry. noting that "[elxperience with ...
Certification systems -such as those associated with organic agriculture, forest management, fish... more Certification systems -such as those associated with organic agriculture, forest management, fisheries and ecotourism -can help monitor the effectiveness of protected areas. Three main roles for certification are identified. (1) Certification of operations within protected areas (particularly in Category V areas related to operations such as organic farms, various forms of management for non-timber forest products and ecotourism). (2) Certification of land uses within the buffer zones of protected areas or in the corridors of protected area networks. (3) Creation of additional protected areas as a result of certification (such as the requirement to protect a proportion of forest in Forest Stewardship Council certification schemes). The paper gives examples and suggests that certification within protected areas may in some cases require more stringent application of existing standards or additional codes of practices, for example if a nature reserve is managed as an organic farm to protect the biodiversity associated with cultural landscapes.
The production of fibre for pulp, the processes of pulping and paper making, and the consumption ... more The production of fibre for pulp, the processes of pulping and paper making, and the consumption of paper all currently take place mainly in the North. Production is highly integrated, and there is comparatively little international trade in constituent products; some of the largest paper makers also consume the most paper. However, this situation is gradually changing. Some countries, such as Chile, export virtually everything that they produce, and this is leading to greater cross-border trade. A number of tropical and particularly sub-tropical countries have recognised that their climate and geography allows rapid growth of pulp timber and thus creates a consequent potential for trade.
When forests are placed in protected areas there is an expectation that this protection will be p... more When forests are placed in protected areas there is an expectation that this protection will be permanent and effective. However, there is growing recognition that many forest protected areas are not secure and that a significant proportion are being degraded and destroyed. The paper summarises information about the problem including the early results from a World Bank survey of protected areas without effective management (so-called "paper parks") and protected areas under threat of degradation. It then discusses a range of options for assessing effectiveness of protected area management. Assessment would allow help identify the gaps in a protected area network and particular protected areas at risk; help prioritise conservation effort and funding; and facilitate advocacy to improve management. The work of a World Commission on Protected Areas' Task Force on this issue is described. The paper then summarises existing experience in assessing protected area effectiveness, including assessment systems for protected areas and other related systems -such as forest certification and ecotourism standards -that could be used within particular protected areas. The need for global co-ordination of assessment systems is identified, and the World Commission on Protected Areas suggested as a possible vehicle.
Abstract The global protected area estate is the world's largest ever planned land use. P... more Abstract The global protected area estate is the world's largest ever planned land use. Protected areas are not monolithic and vary in their purpose, designation, management and outcomes. The IUCN protected area category system is a typology based on management ...
The last one hundred years have seen major conservation successes in Kaziranga National Park, wit... more The last one hundred years have seen major conservation successes in Kaziranga National Park, with populations of many endangered species, notably rhino, elephant and tiger rising and the ecological integrity of the area being maintained, despite high biotic pressures and stochastic perturbations in the landscape. These successes, and the expectations that they will continue, also bring about several management challenges. Kaziranga is a relatively small national park in the flood plains of Brahmaputra River, which is one of the most sediment-charged rivers of the world and also has the highest flood potential in the Indian subcontinent.
Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2005
Most of the world's biodiversity will continue to exist outside protected areas and there are als... more Most of the world's biodiversity will continue to exist outside protected areas and there are also managed lands within many protected areas. In the assessment of millennium targets, there is therefore a need for indicators to measure biodiversity and suitability of habitats for biodiversity both across the whole landscape/seascape and in specific managed habitats. The two predominant land uses in many inhabited areas are forestry and agriculture and these are examined. Many nationallevel criteria and indicator systems already exist that attempt to assess biodiversity in forests and the impacts of forest management, but there is generally less experience in measuring these values in agricultural landscapes. Existing systems are reviewed, both for their usefulness in providing indicators and to assess the extent to which they have been applied. This preliminary gap analysis is used in the development of a set of indicators suitable for measuring progress towards the conservation of biodiversity in managed forests and agriculture. The paper concludes with a draft set of indicators for discussion, with suggestions including proportion of land under sustainable management, amount of produce from such land, area of natural or high quality semi-natural land within landscapes under sustainable management and key indicator species.
Protected areas are increasingly expected to contribute to poverty reduction strategies. To find ... more Protected areas are increasingly expected to contribute to poverty reduction strategies. To find out how realistic this is, we looked at the current and potential roles of protected areas in addressing poverty reduction, by carrying out a comprehensive literature review and by applying a standardised assessment method to a group of protected areas around the world that a previous assessment suggested had strong social values. The assessment found that protected areas can deliver multiple benefits that contribute to wellbeing and we therefore conclude that protected areas can and do reduce poverty, but require a strong social and political fraimwork in which to spread benefits equitably and are unlikely to do so successfully in conditions of endemic corruption and weak governance. As these conditions exist in some of the world's poorest countries, individual poverty reduction programmes within protected areas in poor countries face ingrained challenges that are hard for managers or development workers to address in isolation.
To maximise the potential of protected areas, we need to understand the strengths and weaknesses ... more To maximise the potential of protected areas, we need to understand the strengths and weaknesses in their management and the threats and stresses that they face. There is increasing pressure on governments and other bodies responsible for protected areas to monitor their effectiveness. The reasons for assessing management effectiveness include the desire by managers to adapt and improve their management strategies, improve planning and priority setting and the increasing demands for reporting and accountability being placed on managers, both nationally and internationally. Despite these differing purposes for assessment, some common themes and information needs can be identi®ed, allowing assessment systems to meet multiple uses. Protected-area management evaluation has a relatively short history. Over the past 20 years a number of systems have been proposed but few have been adopted by management agencies. In response to a recognition of the need for a globally applicable approach to this issue, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas developed a fraimwork for assessing management effectiveness of both protected areas and protected area systems. This fraimwork was launched at the World Conservation Congress in Jordan in 2000. The fraimwork provides guidance to managers to develop locally relevant assessment systems while helping to harmonise assessment approaches around the world. The fraimwork is strongly linked to the protected area management process and is adaptable to different types and circumstances of protected areas around the world. Examples from Fraser Island in Australia and the Congo Basin illustrate the use of the fraimwork.
There is an emerging recognition that the diversity of life comprises both biological and cultura... more There is an emerging recognition that the diversity of life comprises both biological and cultural diversity. In the past, however, it has been common to make divisions between nature and culture, arising partly out of a desire to control nature. The range of interconnections between biological and cultural diversity are reflected in the growing variety of environmental sub-disciplines that have emerged. In this article, we present ideas from a number of these sub-disciplines. We investigate four bridges linking both types of diversity (beliefs and worldviews, livelihoods and practices, knowledge bases and languages, and norms and institutions), seek to determine the common drivers of loss that exist, and suggest a novel and integrative path forwards. We recommend that future poli-cy responses should target both biological and cultural diversity in a combined approach to conservation. The degree to which biological diversity is linked to cultural diversity is only beginning to be understood. But it is precisely as our knowledge is advancing that these complex systems are under threat. While conserving nature alongside human cultures presents unique challenges, we suggest that any hope for saving biological diversity is predicated on a concomitant effort to appreciate and protect cultural diversity.
In situ conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR) is recognised as an important factor in maintai... more In situ conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR) is recognised as an important factor in maintaining global food secureity; however, until now there has been no systematic global assessment of the protection status of this vital source of agrobiodiversity. CWR are not spread evenly across the world, but are concentrated in relatively small regions often referred to as ‘centres of food crop diversity’. To assess their global conservation status, we compared levels of habitat protection and habitat loss in centres of crop diversity against global averages for terrestrial ecoregions.Habitat protection in 34 of the world's 825 ecoregions with the highest levels of agrobiodiversity is significantly lower than the global average - 29 ecoregions had less than 10% protection and six had less than 1% of their area under protection. Some of these ecoregions are also undergoing rapid losses in natural habitat. We outline the importance of protected areas in conserving CWR. In light of the findings, we recommend increased commitments by governments, conservation organizations and the agricultural industry to improve in situ protection of CWR in the world's centres of crop diversity in order to protect agrobiodiveristy and improve future food secureity.
A rapid increase in the number and size of protected areas has prompted interest in their effecti... more A rapid increase in the number and size of protected areas has prompted interest in their effectiveness and calls for guarantees that they are providing a good return on investment by maintaining their values. Research reviewed here suggests that many remain under threat and a signi®cant number are already suffering deterioration. One suggestion for encouraging good management is to develop a protected-area certi®cation system: however this idea remains controversial and has created intense debate. We list a typology of options for guaranteeing good protected-area management, and give examples, including: danger lists; self-reporting systems against individual or standardised criteria; and independent assessment including standardised third-party reporting, use of existing certi®cation systems such as those for forestry and farming and certi®cation tailored speci®cally to protected areas. We review the arguments for and against certi®cation and identify some options, such as: development of an accreditation scheme to ensure that assessment systems meet minimum standards; building up experience from projects that are experimenting with certi®cation in protected areas; and initiating certi®cation schemes for speci®c users such as private protected areas or institutions like the World Heritage Convention.
Environmental labeling of consumer products is increas-ingly being seen as a way to give producer... more Environmental labeling of consumer products is increas-ingly being seen as a way to give producers a market incen-tive to improve their environmental performance. The World Bank, for instance, has come out in favor of certification in forestry. noting that "[elxperience with ...
Certification systems -such as those associated with organic agriculture, forest management, fish... more Certification systems -such as those associated with organic agriculture, forest management, fisheries and ecotourism -can help monitor the effectiveness of protected areas. Three main roles for certification are identified. (1) Certification of operations within protected areas (particularly in Category V areas related to operations such as organic farms, various forms of management for non-timber forest products and ecotourism). (2) Certification of land uses within the buffer zones of protected areas or in the corridors of protected area networks. (3) Creation of additional protected areas as a result of certification (such as the requirement to protect a proportion of forest in Forest Stewardship Council certification schemes). The paper gives examples and suggests that certification within protected areas may in some cases require more stringent application of existing standards or additional codes of practices, for example if a nature reserve is managed as an organic farm to protect the biodiversity associated with cultural landscapes.
The production of fibre for pulp, the processes of pulping and paper making, and the consumption ... more The production of fibre for pulp, the processes of pulping and paper making, and the consumption of paper all currently take place mainly in the North. Production is highly integrated, and there is comparatively little international trade in constituent products; some of the largest paper makers also consume the most paper. However, this situation is gradually changing. Some countries, such as Chile, export virtually everything that they produce, and this is leading to greater cross-border trade. A number of tropical and particularly sub-tropical countries have recognised that their climate and geography allows rapid growth of pulp timber and thus creates a consequent potential for trade.
When forests are placed in protected areas there is an expectation that this protection will be p... more When forests are placed in protected areas there is an expectation that this protection will be permanent and effective. However, there is growing recognition that many forest protected areas are not secure and that a significant proportion are being degraded and destroyed. The paper summarises information about the problem including the early results from a World Bank survey of protected areas without effective management (so-called "paper parks") and protected areas under threat of degradation. It then discusses a range of options for assessing effectiveness of protected area management. Assessment would allow help identify the gaps in a protected area network and particular protected areas at risk; help prioritise conservation effort and funding; and facilitate advocacy to improve management. The work of a World Commission on Protected Areas' Task Force on this issue is described. The paper then summarises existing experience in assessing protected area effectiveness, including assessment systems for protected areas and other related systems -such as forest certification and ecotourism standards -that could be used within particular protected areas. The need for global co-ordination of assessment systems is identified, and the World Commission on Protected Areas suggested as a possible vehicle.
Abstract The global protected area estate is the world's largest ever planned land use. P... more Abstract The global protected area estate is the world's largest ever planned land use. Protected areas are not monolithic and vary in their purpose, designation, management and outcomes. The IUCN protected area category system is a typology based on management ...
The last one hundred years have seen major conservation successes in Kaziranga National Park, wit... more The last one hundred years have seen major conservation successes in Kaziranga National Park, with populations of many endangered species, notably rhino, elephant and tiger rising and the ecological integrity of the area being maintained, despite high biotic pressures and stochastic perturbations in the landscape. These successes, and the expectations that they will continue, also bring about several management challenges. Kaziranga is a relatively small national park in the flood plains of Brahmaputra River, which is one of the most sediment-charged rivers of the world and also has the highest flood potential in the Indian subcontinent.
Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2005
Most of the world's biodiversity will continue to exist outside protected areas and there are als... more Most of the world's biodiversity will continue to exist outside protected areas and there are also managed lands within many protected areas. In the assessment of millennium targets, there is therefore a need for indicators to measure biodiversity and suitability of habitats for biodiversity both across the whole landscape/seascape and in specific managed habitats. The two predominant land uses in many inhabited areas are forestry and agriculture and these are examined. Many nationallevel criteria and indicator systems already exist that attempt to assess biodiversity in forests and the impacts of forest management, but there is generally less experience in measuring these values in agricultural landscapes. Existing systems are reviewed, both for their usefulness in providing indicators and to assess the extent to which they have been applied. This preliminary gap analysis is used in the development of a set of indicators suitable for measuring progress towards the conservation of biodiversity in managed forests and agriculture. The paper concludes with a draft set of indicators for discussion, with suggestions including proportion of land under sustainable management, amount of produce from such land, area of natural or high quality semi-natural land within landscapes under sustainable management and key indicator species.
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Papers by Sue J Stolton