Following the announcements made at the World Conservation Congress, IUCN has restructured the management of the thematic programmes under the leadership of Deputy Director General Stewart Maginnis. A new functional structure will consist of four centres, namely the Centre for Conservation Action, Centre for Economy and Finance, Centre for Science and Data, and Centre for People and Governance.

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On 15 November 2021, the online ceremony of the Pathfinder Award felicitated four winners from China, India, Madagascar, and Tanzania. This award recognises and celebrates their innovative, integrated approaches to protected and conserved area management that successfully conserve nature while making development gains related to human health, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable land management.

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The organisations in charge of some of the largest tracts of protected landscapes and marine environments across the world have come together for the first time to call on world leaders to support their work at the vanguard of the fight against Climate Change and Biodiversity loss. Orchestrated by National Parks UK, as host nation for COP26, the statement has been signed by, amongst others, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and EUROPARC.

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At the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow, Western Indian Ocean states and partners including International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have launched the Great Blue Wall initiative to establish a network of marine and coastal conserved areas to benefit biodiversity and local livelihoods, empowering communities to become stewards of the ocean.

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Catch up with the technical events at the Vital Sites for a Protected Planet pavilion at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, as they are released and added to this playlist. Day 1 is now up! 

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The Rhino Rangers in the Kunene and Erongo region of Namibia have a very important and often challenging task: to protect the largest free-ranging black rhino population in the world, in a very harsh and arid environment. Over 60 rhino rangers are employed by 13 community conservancies surrounding the Palmwag Concession in north-western Namibia and their daily task is to patrol a total area of 25,000 km2, finding rhinos and ensuring that they are unharmed.

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The 2nd Annual International Ranger Award will recognise the remarkable work of rangers in protected areas around the world. Hosted by the IUCN and the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, in collaboration with the International Ranger Federation, Re:wild, Conservation Allies, and WWF Tigers Alive Initiative, these awards are intended to improve rangers’ capabilities, raise awareness about the critical role they play in conservation efforts, and help share rangers’ unique stories and perspectives.

Nominations are open from 30 November 2021 to 31 January 2022

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Alongside efforts on ranger patrols, anti-poaching activities, and target species monitoring, the BIOPAMA grant has allowed for the provision of farming supplies, equipment, and advice. This is enabling local families to sustainably grow and harvest their own food without having to slash and burn new areas of pristine forest. This has been incredibly successful with rice harvests providing food security to the families of the rangers who now also have job security.

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In this updated section of the newsletter, join us as we meet with inspiring PANORAMA Solution Providers, starting off with David Parreno of Blue Ventures Madagascar. Blue Ventures are partners of the Velondriake Association, who recently won the Pathfinder Award 2021, in the category Climate Change.

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Almost all new infectious diseases, from HIV to Ebola to probably also COVID-19, emerge when a microbe “spills over” from animals to humans. Land-use change, particularly the clearing and degradation of tropical forests, is the largest driver of these spillovers, bringing wildlife into contact with domestic animals and humans.

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This is the second project implemented by the association Les Naturalistes Environnement et Patrimoine de Mayotte that was presented at the WCC BEST pavilion in Marseille.

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AGN's mission is the protection of biodiversity, as it guarantees the proper functioning of ecosystems and has an economic and aesthetic value. As a result, AGN supports the forest services of Burkina Faso in the fight against poaching through agreements with the Ministry in charge of the Environment and supports communities bordering Protected Areas through village monitoring programs, reforestation projects and economic development for a virtuous and sustainable exploitation of natural resources.

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IUCN and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Korea (MOF) in light of the “Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Conservation and Management Project” held an initial workshop event on marine protected areas for Thailand on 15-16 November. The event brought together experts and staff from key relevant agencies responsible for marine protected areas in Thailand and from the region. Discussing the global conservation targets for marine biodiversity and how they influence the current work and future ambitions for MPA management in Thailand. It introduced the IUCN Green List for protected and conserved areas, as an ideal mechanism that adds value and harmonises information from previous MPA assessments with Green List experience sharing from Malaysia and Vietnam.

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Tech4Nature is a global partnership to scale up success in nature conservation through digital technology innovation.

Created by IUCN and the Huawei Tech4All programme, Tech4Nature is designed as an open partnership to apply and promote digital solutions for fair and effective protected areas. Tech4Nature aims to enable more than 300 protected areas worldwide to evaluate their conservation success through the IUCN Green List Standard by 2023.

Get to know about the flagship countries, involved sites, the ongoing progress and tech solutions! Stay tuned for upcoming news and updates!

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The King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Royal Reserve held a virtual workshop with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at the reserve’s headquarters in Riyadh, aimed to achieve the objectives by supporting and enabling existing efforts in conservation and restoring ecological balance.

The workshop discussed support for the implementation of the management and restoration of wild nature in its reservations through the IUCN Green List, and activate partnerships with leading international organizations in the environmental protection.

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A new Uptake Feature has been introduced on the PANORAMA platform. The aim is to recognise the successful uptake of solutions - the transfer or scaling-up of existing solutions in other contexts around the globe. Watch the explanatory video here and stay tuned for more Uptake stories.

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‘Sustainable Tourism and Protected Areas in a Post-COVID World’ is a project led by IUCN on behalf of GIZ and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is implemented by the IUCN Global Protected and Conserved Areas Programme in collaboration with Planeterra and other partners.

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World Heritage sites show the urgent need for climate action, but they also offer part of the solution. As the international community focusses on achieving the aims of the Paris Agreement and defining a new global framework for biodiversity, natural World Heritage sites offer valuable insight into the challenges of climate change and why protecting our precious nature is a priority in addressing them.

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The November issue of PARKS commences with an Editorial from the new Chair and Deputy Chair of WCPA on priorities for the Commission. This is followed by an Editorial Essay that considers what should count towards more ambitious protected and conserved area targets within the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Papers in the November issue consider using monitoring to assess conservation and patrol effectiveness, integrating protected areas with surrounding traditional landscapes, waste management in private reserves, causes of ranger casualties in Sri Lanka, reporting economic benefits of protected areas, marine protection in Denmark and an outline of the World Park project.

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Ecosystem services provided by protected areas include important recreation values: 93 % of all natural World Heritage sites have been found to provide benefits related to recreation and tourism and 56 % to contribute to local economies through tourism. The new guidelines, 'Visitors Count! Guidance for protected areas on the economic analysis of visitation' present the methods of how to prepare economic effect analysis in a simple way to be conducted by protected area managers and other local stakeholders.

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For the first time, METT-4 is presented as an Excel tool which aids implementation and compilation of results. Along with this new version of the METT is a new edition of the METT Handbook. Launched in November 2021 this 2nd edition of the Handbook, provides background on management effectiveness, advice on best use of the METT, case studies and links to the improving the quality of METT assessments using SMART and complementing management effectiveness assessments using the site-level assessment of governance and equity (SAGE) tool. A Spanish version of the Handbook is also in production.

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The public is invited to submit proposals for the 2nd Asia Parks Congress, to be held in Sabah, Malaysia in May 2022. The deadline is Friday, 14 January 2022. All applications will be reviewed by a panel of experts. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of the review process by 1 March 2022.

Apply here

The scientific journal Land is still inviting submissions to the special issue "Planning Effective Conservation Landscapes for Nature and People: What Have We Learned?". The extended deadline for manuscript submissions is 15 January 2022.

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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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