Vice Chair, World Commission On Protected Areas
CurrentThe primary objective of this theme is to work toward positioning protected and conserved areas prominently on the biodiversity, human health, climate and restoration agendas. As the world responds to a zoonotic pandemic, parties to United Nations conventions on biodiversity and climate are committing to ambitious new targets for area-based conservation. This theme will prepare the Commission to help realize the ambitions of these new commitments, alongside a shift from intentions to demonstrable outcomes. Among others, the 30x30 target (of the CBD Global Biodiversity Framework) requires a radical rethink of approach; in theory WCPA could be providing technical support to a third of the planet’s surface. The expert-driven volunteer system of WCPA that has served well until now will no longer be sufficient and a major scaling up is urgently needed. This includes but is not limited to nature-based solutions, with special attention to issues of good governance, legitimate rights and social equity. Area-based conservation measures such as protected and conserved areas are critically important mechanisms for ecosystem protection, management and restoration, and thus a key category of NbS approaches. This remit is intentionally broad, open to respond to the radical change that science tells us is required.