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 The
United Nations List of Protected Areas is the definitive list
of the world's national parks and reserves. It is regularly
compiled under the authority of the United Nations, based
on resolutions adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council.
From 1962 to 1990, ten editions of the UN List were printed.
Since then the 1993
UN List and the 1997
UN List have been available both as printed publications
and as web-based databases that can be queried.
The most recent edition is the 2003
UN List of Protected Areas [PDF, 528 KB], released at
the 5th World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. It is
intended that the 2003 UN List of Protected Areas will also
provide input to the discussions of Parties to the Convention
on Biological Diversity, which has protected areas on
its agenda at the Seventh Conference of the Parties in February
2004.
Compiling the UN List of Protected Areas
The UN List is compiled by the UNEP World
Conservation Monitoring Centre working in close collaboration
with the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).
Information is provided by national protected areas authorities
and the secretariats of international conventions and programmes.
However, the 2003 UN List also benefits from the establishment
in 2002 of the World Database on Protected
Areas (WDPA - the database that underpins the UN List)
Consortium.
In June 2002, the WCPA, IUCN, UNEP-WCMC and other organisations
agreed to progress the development of the WDPA through the
formation of a Consortium of co-operative stakeholders. The
Consortium currently comprises membership of intergovernmental
and non-government organisations, including the major global
conservation organisations. Since the formation of the Consortium,
members have made valuable contributions to the WDPA, including
data that has improved the quality of information in the 2003
UN List.
Criteria for Inclusion on the 2003 UN List
The format and content of the
2003 UN List is a significant departure from the previous
editions that have been produced. The UN List has
been an evolving process since its inception in 1962, moving
from the iconic national park "roll of honour" concept that
characterised the earlier UN Lists to one that reflects the
range of protected area objectives and values relevant to
the late 20th and early 21st century.
Criteria and definitions for inclusion have changed,
although both the 1997 and 2003 UN Lists use the IUCN Protected
Areas Category System as the basis for analysis. Globally the numbers of protected areas have increased substantially,
and their conservation values and role in the provision of
ecosystem services and sustainable development has broadened
considerably. The recent emphasis (relative to the time period
of the UN List) on ecosystem approaches, ecological corridors
and the function of protected areas as "core" sites within
wider landscape conservation frameworks calls for a more inclusive
approach to presenting protected areas in the UN List.
In all previous editions of the UN List, criteria for inclusion
have focused on specific definitions of protected areas, a
minimum size and, since the 1982 edition, the UN List has
only included those sites with IUCN management categories.
With respect to these criteria, it has been decided
in this edition to include all protected areas that meet the
IUCN definition of a protected area, regardless of size and
whether or not they have been assigned an IUCN category.
IUCN defines a protected area as:
An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the
protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of
natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through
legal or other effective means.
2003 UN List - Inclusion of non-categorised Protected Areas
Sites:
- Not all protected area agencies or other organisations
have assigned IUCN categories to their sites. However, the
34,036 protected areas without IUCN categories cover 3.6
million km2 and therefore represent a significant
proportion of the global conservation estate. Their omission
would significantly under-represent the efforts that have
been made by many countries to establish protected areas.
It should be noted, however, that their inclusion in no
way diminishes the importance placed by IUCN, UNEP, IUCN's
World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and UNEP-WCMC
upon the assignment of management categories as a mechanism
for the rational international assessment of protected areas.
On the contrary, inclusion of the non-categorised sites
clearly shows the progress that has been made in assigning
categories to most (67% of the total number and 81% of the
area) of the world's protected areas. The value of the category
system reinforces the need to achieve the goal of progressively
assigning all relevant sites to an IUCN category. The management
categories are defined in detail in the Guidelines
for Protected Area Management Categories published by
IUCN in 1994.
- The previous size limitation of a minimum of 10 km2
(1,000 hectares), or 1 km2 (100 hectares) in
the case of islands, has not been applied. The rationale
for this is not only the opportunity provided by the digital
format, but also because even small areas can play a significant
role in conservation - especially in the context of bioregional
planning approaches. The IUCN protected area definition
does not include a size restriction.
Additional Information
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