Introduction

Management effectiveness evaluation is defined as:

'the assessment of how well the protected area is being managed – primarily the extent to which it is protecting values and achieving goals and objectives. The term management effectiveness reflects three main themes:

  • design issues relating to both individual sites and protected area systems;
  • adequacy and appropriateness of management systems and processes; and
  • delivery of protected area objectives including conservation of values.'

(Hockings et al., 2006, p.xiii).

The issue

Around 12% of the land of the planet is conserved within protected areas. However, relying on protected areas as a key strategy for biodiversity conservation only makes sense if there is a reasonable chance that such areas can be secured into the foreseeable future. In the face of rapid global change – in biophysical, social and governance environments – it is important to improve the knowledge on protected areas management effectiveness, to celebrate best practices and to adapt management were necessary to ensure effective conservation on the ground.

To address this need, a number of different methodologies for measuring the management effectiveness of protected areas have been developed. However, these tools are not easily accessible in one place, and their results have not yet been widely shared or distributed among the conservation community.

The response

The assessment of management effectiveness in protected areas, using a variety of different tools, has been steadily increasing over the last ten years or more. Several assessments have been undertaken both at site and system levels by national protected area agencies, international NGOs (such as WWF and TNC) and with the support from large funding agencies (such as the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility).

The 5th World Parks Congress in 2003 included a workshop stream on management effectiveness evaluation, included in its Proceedings Recommendation 18 '..the importance of monitoring and evaluation of management effectiveness as a basis for improved protected area management and more transparent and accountable reporting' and called on member states and protected area managers to implement and provide transparent reporting on management effectiveness (IUCN, 2005).

The next year, the CBD Conference of the Parties 'COP7' (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2004, p.345) adopted a Programme of Work on Protected Areas in recognition of the fact that :

"… existing systems of protected areas are neither representative of the world's ecosystems, nor do they adequately address conservation of critical habitat types, biomes and threatened species… and (that) … insufficient financial sustainability and support, poor governance, ineffective management and insufficient participation, pose fundamental barriers to achieving the protected areas objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity."

The Programme established a specific goal (4.2) and related activities relating to MEE:

Goal 4.2 - To evaluate and improve the effectiveness of protected areas management

Target: By 2010, frameworks for monitoring, evaluating and reporting protected areas management effectiveness at sites, national and regional systems, and transboundary protected area levels adopted and implemented by Parties.

Suggested activities of the Parties
4.2.1 Develop and adopt, by 2006, appropriate methods, standards, criteria and indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of protected area management and governance, and set up a related database, taking into account the IUCN-WCPA Framework for evaluating management effectiveness, and other relevant methodologies, which should be adapted to local conditions.

4.2.2 Implement management effectiveness evaluations of at least 30 percent of each Party's protected areas by 2010 and of national protected area systems and, as appropriate, ecological networks.

4.2.3 Include information resulting from evaluation of protected areas management effectiveness in national reports under the Convention on Biological Diversity.

4.2.4 Implement key recommendations arising from site- and system-level management effectiveness evaluations, as an integral part of adaptive management strategies

A global study of management effectiveness has brought together all the available data on different methodologies and its applications and is trying to understand patterns and trends in methodologies and their applications. This study is built from the 'framework for evaluating management effectiveness of protected areas' that was developed and promulgated by the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) (Hockings et al. 2000).