New policy briefing on advancing equity in protected area conservation
A new policy briefing published by IIED highlights how an equity framework building on the work of several ESPA projects can be used to manage protected areas more equitably.
Protected areas are used to conserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services across more than 15% of the Earth’s surface, usually in areas characterised by extreme poverty and high cultural diversity. Often, the global, national and local benefits of this conservation strategy can come at a cost to local communities.
Balancing the needs of the marginalised communities who live in and around protected areas with conservation improvements is a challenge that dominates discourse around protected area conservation.
The research team, led by Dr Kate Schreckenberg, has developed a framework that seeks to help policymakers address these issues. Supporting existing assessment methods, this equity framework provides stakeholders with a set of principles and dimensions that apply equity issues to the governance and management of protected areas.
The team is planning to share a revised version of the equity framework at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in September 2016.
More information about ESPA research projects on equity
