Protected areas have long been one of the main strategies for safeguarding the world’s biodiversity. But pressures on the environment caused by economic development and other human activities make it difficult to protect natural areas that are large enough to accommodate entire ecosystems. On the other hand ecosystems need to be treated with care, because they provide goods and services that are vitally important for human well-being.
This has been acknowledged by IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) by integrating both sustainable use and conservation in IUCN’s Protected Area classification system. This system identifies six categories of Protected Areas ranging from Category i, ‘Strict Nature Reserve’ that focus on protection, to Category vi, ‘Managed Resource Protected Area’ that allow for sustainable use of natural resources. However, we have to look beyond boundaries. IUCN’s Vth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa (September 2003) concluded that parks should not exist as unique islands, but need to be planned and managed as an integral part of the broader landscape. Ecological networks provide an operational model for conserving biodiversity that is based on ecological principles and allow a degree of human use of the landscape. This combination makes the concept of ecological networks a useful instrument for the implementation of the Convention of Biological Diversity and contributes to the intention of the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002.
This publication illustrates the development of several ecological networks around the world. It demonstrates the benefits of these networks, not only for conservation purposes, but also for sustainable development. Although the concept is relatively new and needs more time to fully crystallise, these examples indicate that investments in ecological networks yield benefits, not only because of the biodiversity they conserve but also because of the essential ecological services they provide to local communities, thereby contributing to poverty alleviation.
The Ecosystem Approach, endorsed by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its fifth meeting in Nairobi, Kenya (May 2000), is designed to balance conservation, sustainable use and equitable benefit sharing of genetic resources. It looks beyond the boundaries of Protected Areas and promotes inter-sectoral cooperation, while placing humans at the centre of conservation efforts. As such it is the ideal tool for designing and implementing effective ecological networks. IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) has therefore dedicated its work to the promotion of the application of the Ecosystem Approach.
