Targeted primarily at government and non-government agencies responsible for funding and managing Protected Areas (PAs), this report:
- assesses the recent status of and trends in PA financing;
- examines the concept of PA financial sustainability, describing how financial constraints can block effective biodiversity conservation in PAs;
- explains various financing mechanisms, reviews examples of their application in different contexts, and identifies lessons learned about the factors which influence their success;
- considers mechanisms for attracting and administering external flows of funds to PAs;
- considers mechanisms for making market-based charges for PA goods and services, including tourist charges, bio-prospecting, resource extraction fees and payments for ecosystem services.
Key conclusions from the report are:
- increasing the funding of PAs is an obligation. By establishing permanent PAs, governments assume responsibility for ensuring that adequate funds are provided for their upkeep;
- many PAs are under-funded and likely to remain so under current conditions;
- PA financing needs and opportunities will continue to grow and change, partly due to increased expectations from the public as to what PAs should deliver as well as population growth and economic expansion;
- the increasing difficulty of raising funds for PAs from conventional sources and the increasing complexity of PA funding needs and opportunities, highlight the importance of financial planning and marketing skills;
- sustainable PA finance requires supportive policy and market conditions.
The report makes several recommendations for the future sustainability, efficiency and effectiveness of PA funding:
- PA financial planning and budgeting processes, and the institutions that fund PAs, should support all aspects of financial sustainability, not just funding levels;
- donors and governments should increase funding to PAs in line with their stated commitments, and in light of identified needs;
- national environmental agencies should work with financial and economic agencies to ensure that policies, markets and prices in other sectors do not undermine PA financial sustainability;
- PA authorities should work towards incorporating a diversity of funding sources and a multiplicity of beneficiaries;
- PA authorities should take advantage of new, innovative financing mechanisms for raising money;
- PA authorities (and donors) should see funding as part of broader management requirements;
- PA authorities must recognise and respond to the broader sustainable development goals of the governments and other groups that fund them;
- a comprehensive global study of PA financing should be undertaken, as a first step towards the creation of a permanent PA financial information system;
- appropriate means should be found to transfer technical expertise and build the capacity required to achieve PA financial sustainability.
