With the World Parks Congress kicking off in Sydney next week, it’s not surprising that this week’s issue of Nature features a lot of content on conservation and protected areas, which includes contributions from the conservation planning group.
First up, Bob Pressey leads a group of experts sharing their priorities for what must be done to make protected areas more effective at conserving global biodiversity in A to-do list for the world’s parks. Bob starts:
“Protected areas are meant to preserve biodiversity, but practice, measures of progress and targets do not reflect this role. Governments and non-governmental organizations usually concentrate on politically palatable measures, such as numbers of hectares. Measures of progress and targets for protected areas should focus on placing protection where it can make the most difference.”
You can read the rest of the comment here.
In the same issue, Heather Tallis & Jane Lubchenco lead a call for a more inclusive approach to conservation, one that recognizes and accepts all values of nature, from intrinsic to instrumental, and equally hears the voices of women and practitioners of diverse ethnicities and cultures. Rebecca Weeks and Mariana Fuentes are co-signatories. You can read the Nature comment here, and add your name to the petition at diverseconservation.org.
