Following a range of successful Vital Sites: Journey to Marseille events in October, catch up on any you missed, with the recordings available on YouTube and compiled on the Vital Sites page.

November gives us the opportunity to highlight two webinar series planned as part of the journey - the Pew Charitable Trusts series on marine protection and the WCPA's Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS) series on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism in protected areas.

Pew Series:

- Webinar 1: How Antarctic and High Seas Protection can Save Half the Planet (watch now on YouTube)

- Webinar 2: The Journey to 30%: Community-Led Ocean Protection for 30x30 (register to attend live on 11 November)

TAPAS Series:

- Webinar 1: Socio-cultural Dimensions of Tourism and Protected Areas during COVID-19 (watch now on YouTube)

- Webinar 2: Economic Dimensions of Tourism and Protected Areas during COVID-19 (register to attend live on 12 November)

Catch up or register for all Vital Sites events here.

Dailus Laurence, the Chief Warden of Cousin Island Special Reserve, has won the prestigious 2020 African Ranger Award. The award includes prize money of USD 10,000. Nature Seychelles nominated him under the organisation's “Building Back Better” program, which aims to tackle the conservation challenges around the COVID-19 crisis.

The 29-year-old winner said, "I am surprised but also overjoyed at this amazing award. The award actually belongs to the entire team of Cousin Island Special Reserve because everything we do here is a team effort, so I will be sharing the prize money with the Wardens."

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The IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas will soon launch the International Ranger Awards, recognising the remarkable work of rangers in protected and conserved areas around the world.

Developed in collaboration with the International Ranger Federation, Global Wildlife Conservation, and Conservation Allies, these awards are designed to recognise all types of rangers. Nominations will be encouraged regardless of duties, gender, protected area governance type, or geographic location.

In the first round of these annual awards, ten prizes each of $10,000 will be awarded to rangers or ranger teams to help support their work and the protected and conserved areas where they are based. Full details of the awards and guidance on how to nominate rangers and ranger teams will be announced soon.

After Colombia's Chingaza National Park entered the Green List of Protected and Preserved Areas, this decision positions the country as a Latin American leader in the management and conservation of protected areas, home to five of the 11 Green List areas in the region.

The park has more than 66 local ventures, eight community ecotourism organisations, 35 agreements with communities to strengthen ecological connectivity and is integrated with the development plans of 11 municipalities. 98% of the area is well preserved and its biological corridors are home to 1,200 species of plants, 49 amphibians, 32 reptiles, 531 birds, and 164 mammals.

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La Reserva de la Biosfera del Volcán Tacaná, en la frontera de México y Guatemala, es una región de gran riqueza biológica y cultural. La cultura MAME nació aquí. Este patrimonio cultural florece junto con una increíble biodiversidad donde muchas de sus especies son endémicas y están amenazadas por las actividades humanas. El fuego es la principal amenaza de la reserva. Cada año, se pierden hectáreas de bosque debido a los incendios provocados. Los guardaparques de la CONANP, trabajan entrenando brigadas comunitarias, enseñando en las comunidades y luchando contra incendios cuando ocurren.

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Este proyecto pone el foco en preservar los ecosistemas naturales de esa región, proteger especies endémicas, incentivar investigaciones científicas, conservar la cobertura del suelo, los servicios ambientales, el patrimonio ambiental, cultural, fomentar el turismo sustentable. Estas herramientas vienen a intentar contrarrestrar los efectos de problemas existentes y actuales tales como: Convencer al poder público y a la comunidad de la importancia de preservar los antes mencionados y establecer un área protegida- APA-, la situación ameritaba un imperioso y urgente plan de creación de APA a efectos de evitar ocupaciones clandestinas y establecimiento de redes criminales, deforestación ilegal, caza predatoria, contaminación y deterioro ambiental.

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From 15-17 September 2020, the global community of the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas participated in a virtual workshop to guide Green List growth and development strategically over the next decade.

The ‘IUCN Green List Governance and Development Workshop’ was organised by IUCN’s Global Protected and Conserved Areas Programme (GPAP) in cooperation with the International Academy for Nature Conservation of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), as part of the partnership programme between BfN and IUCN.

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New documents show that the global conservation status of an Australian marine park is at risk after a weakening of its sanctuary status without consultation, to allow recreational fishing.

Montague Island, located off the South Coast, was among the first 25 sites to be granted Green Listing by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Documents obtained under freedom of information show both National Parks and IUCN raised concerns about the impact of easing protection.

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The BIOPAMA programme has recently supported national authorities in the Caribbean and Western Africa to improve the planning, monitoring and evaluation of protected area management in one site in Barbados and six sites in Guinea. These engagements included capacity development activities on protected area management effectiveness tools, including PAME and IMET.

Learn more about these efforts in Barbados and Guinea.

Six protected and conserved areas in Fiji will benefit from a BIOPAMA grant implemented by the National Trust of Fiji (NTF). This grant will provide equipment to ensure that field staff and site managers can undertake management effectively. Materials provided will support interpretative activities at the NTF Site Visitor Information Centre and Resource Centre and enable management effectiveness assessments to be carried out.

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The Solomon Islands are a stronghold of biodiversity in the Pacific islands region. An event organised as part of BIOPAMA’s activities in the Pacific delivered training for protected area practitioners in the Solomon Islands. The participants have now gained the knowledge and capacity to make full use of the Pacific Islands Protected Area Portal (PIPAP), and the tools and services it provides for the management of protected areas.

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“The BEST initiative ... is delivering massive gains in environmental knowledge, identifying 400 new key biodiversity areas, and 3 and half million square kilometres of ecological corridors.”

Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries highlighted the contribution of the BEST initiative in the identification and inventory of the richness of EU Overseas biodiversity in his opening speech at the Outermost Regions Forum 2020 - “Together for a sustainable future”. Emphasising the exceptional biodiversity of the nine Outermost Regions as well as their role as biodiversity hotspots, the Commissioner continued,

“Building on that, our next LIFE Programme for 2021-2027 contains a special small grant scheme to unlock the local potential for biodiversity in Outermost Regions and in Overseas Countries and Territories”.

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Launched on 10 September 2020 in the EU Overseas Countries and Territories (BEST2.0+) and Outermost Regions (LIFE4BEST), the two BEST calls for proposals closed on 22 October 2020.

With more than 160 proposals from all regions, these calls showed once again the great mobilisation and dynamism of stakeholders on the ground, confirming the interest in small grant schemes. The next step will consist of the evaluation of each concept note to determine which projects will be asked to submit a full proposal.

It is not too late to enrol and start learning about conservation. This session, 8500 people have already enrolled, and Bangladesh has made it to our list of ‘attested’ countries where at least one learner has completed a MOOC to certification level. In total, 103 countries have attested learners, with Benin having the highest number while the sole attested learner from Saudi Arabia is a woman.

Registrations are open until 1 December 2020, and learners have until 15 December to complete their courses.

To enroll, visit mooc-conservation.org

Registrations close on 1 December 2020.

A series of online debates, ‘Culture, Tourism and COVID-19: Recovery, Resiliency and Rejuvenation’, was launched on 28 September by UNESCO in collaboration with IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM. The panel called for a shift towards tourism that regenerates destinations and provides economic, social and environmental benefits, while not losing sight of global challenges such as climate change.

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The IUCN WCPA, George Wright Society, US National Park Service, Parks Canada and the Colorado State University's Sound and Light Ecology Team invite you to experience nature from your home, and then share your quality recordings. The goal is to build a global collection of natural and cultural sounds from the planet’s protected places.

With more than 30 protected areas already featured, this collaborative effort with #NatureForAll aims to inspire everyone to engage with our natural and cultural heritage, and foster meaningful connections with our parks and protected areas.

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Explore the world's protected and conserved areas through the new and improved Protected Planet! For the first time, users can explore other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMS) alongside protected areas, and see the contribution they make to reaching Aichi target 11.

Try out this new functionality alongside many other new elements at www.protectedplanet.net

National governments have fallen short on delivering conservation commitments for protected and conserved areas under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), despite the expansion in protected areas over the last decade, according to a new analysis published this month in Nature.

Led by Dr Sean Maxwell of the University of Queensland and co-authored by members of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas, the paper analyses whether growth in protected areas between 2010 and 2019 has led to better protection for natural ecosystems, threatened species and ecosystem services.

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The entire volume of the “Protected Area Governance and Management” book is now available in French and is free for download. The book was first launched in English at the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 and in Spanish at the Third Latin American and the Caribbean Protected Areas Congress 2019.

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Contributing to a sustainable future in Eastern Europe, North and Central Asia, IUCN ECARO focuses on good governance, long-term protection of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources.

Catch up on all the latest developments from these regions, including the UN Biodiversity Summit, Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, Uzbekistan and Georgia designating new Ramsar sites, conservation of goitered gazelle by IUCN SOS Central Asia grantees, and more.

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IUCN Congress postponed - New dates will be announced in due course

In view of the health situation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, France and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have decided to postpone the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which was to be held in January 2021 in Marseille. New dates for the event will be announced in due course.

France and IUCN remain fully committed to the development of a global framework for the conservation of biodiversity and will continue to act towards this objective.

To receive IUCN Congress updates, subscribe here.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and partners have the pleasure of introducing you to the first-of-its-kind private sector focused nature conservation accelerator fund, intended to create a scalable pipeline of investments rooted in nature-based solutions. The Nature+ Accelerator Fund provides measurable, science-based, conservation and social benefits while delivering financial returns for investors, and effectively supporting a new natural capital asset class.

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UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), through the BIOPAMA Programme, are hosting an online event designed to provide an overview of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measure (OECMs) – what they are, how to identify and recognise them, and how to report these important sites to the World Database on OECMs. The case studies will focus on examples from Eswatini and South Africa.

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The UN Biodiversity Summit was held on September 30th and nearly 30 Heads of State from around the world expressed their commitment to protecting at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030 (30x30). Meanwhile, community efforts in countries like Palau and Chile have resulted in each nation already protecting over 30% of the marine area nationwide. This is not only a strong sign that the global ambition is achievable, but that it is imperative to support livelihoods, protect cultural heritage, and ensure food security.

Panel participants will hear first-hand accounts on the successful efforts to designate and implement Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Palau and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), as well as evidence illustrating why increasing protection and conservation coverage makes a blue recovery from COVID-19 possible.

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Join this event to hear the expert community discuss the economic impact of COVID-19 in Protected Areas across the world, including examples from Africa, North America, and South America by the following experts:

Catherine Cullinane Thomas, a natural resource economist with the U.S. Geological Survey and lead modeler for the U.S. National Park Service Visitor Spending Effects Model.

Dr. Thiago Beraldo Souza, Knowledge Development Coordinator of the Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group (TAPAS). Thiago works for the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), where he is developing agendas like capacity building, ecotourism planning, community-based tourism, wildlife tourism, long distance trails, visitor monitoring, recreation concessions and economic impacts of tourism.

Sue Snyman, the Director of Research at the African Leadership University’s School of Wildlife Conservation. Previously, Sue worked for Wilderness Safaris, a private sector ecotourism operator, for 10 years.

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The Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development, IUCN and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission invite you to join the virtual launch event of the Regional Resource Hub for Eastern and Southern Africa.

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Save the date for this webinar, where we will present fresh results from the IUCN World Heritage Outlook 3. Now with three sets of data available from 2014, 2017, and 2020, this flagship report provides an opportunity to identify evolving trends in the global status of natural World Heritage, serving as an indicator of the effectiveness of protected and conserved areas. The webinar will follow the launch of updated Conservation Outlook Assessments for 252 sites, and of the report summarising global and regional results. Registration link coming soon.

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The BIOPAMA programme is organising a series of virtual learning events and trainings on specific financing mechanisms outlined in the report “Closing the gap - Financing and resourcing of protected and conserved areas in Eastern and Southern Africa”. Previous events focused on collaborative management and payment for ecosystem services and a final one will be organised by the end of the year. Catch up on the previous events, in case you missed them, here.

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Since its establishment in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. IUCN’s new legacy gift options will help ensure IUCN keeps playing this essential role for years to come.

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