WWF - Forest Protection Publications

WWF Position Paper on Forest Protected Areas

2010-02-01

WWF Position Paper on Forest Management Outside Protected Areas

2010-01-01

Natural Solutions: protected areas helping people cope with climate change

2009-12-08

Climate change poses an unprecedented level of threat to life on the planet. The facts are well known. Atmospheric greenhouse gases are creating warmer temperatures, ice melt, sea-level rise and an unpredictable climate, with a range of extremely serious and hard-to-predict consequences.

But serious as the situation has now become, much can still be done to reduce the problems created by climate change. "Natural Solutions" focuses on the role that protected areas can play in mitigating and adapting to climate change; a set of options that so far has been under-represented in global response strategies. In the rush for "new" solutions to climate change, we are in danger of neglecting a proven alternative.

Protected areas are an essential part of the global response to climate change. They are helping address the cause of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They are helping society cope with climate change impacts by maintaining essential services upon which people depend. Without them, the challenges would be even greater, and their strengthening will yield one of the most powerful natural solutions to the climate crisis.

Some of the facts:

Fifteen percent of the world's terrestrial carbon stock - 312 gigatonnes - are stored in protected areas around the world.
In Canada, over 4,000 million tons of carbon dioxide is sequestered in 39 national parks, estimated to be worth $39-87 billion in carbon credits.
In the Brazilian Amazon, protected lands are expected to prevent 670,000 km² of deforestation by 2050, representing 8 billion tons of avoided carbon emissions.

Protected areas also serve as natural buffers against climate impacts and other disasters, providing space for floodwaters to disperse, stabilizing soil against landslides and blocking storm surges. It has been estimated that coastal wetlands in the United States provide $23.2 billion a year in protection against flooding from hurricanes.

And protected areas can keep natural resources healthy and productive so they can withstand the impacts of climate change and continue to provide the food, clean water, shelter and income communities rely upon for survival. Thirty three of the world's 100 largest cities derive their drinking water from catchments within forest protected areas.

New Generations Plantations Project - Synthesis Report 2007 - 2009

2009-10-18

WWF Guide to Conservation Finance

2009-10-06

The Guide to Conservation Finance provides an overview of conservation financing mechanisms that have been implemented throughout the world. The guide informs field practitioners about which of the available financing mechanisms they could apply to achieve their conservation aims. The various mechanisms are illustrated with short case studies that demonstrate both successes and challenges. In addition, the guide provides a list of resources and Web links for further exploration of the conservation finance field.

WWFolio Bolivia Nº 15

2008-10-27

Le presentamos nuestra edición informativa de octubre de 2008. En este número usted podrá leer sobre:

EDITORIAL VIVO:

La conservación es una disciplina de emergencia

PANTANAL VIVO:

Un enfoque ecor-regional transfronterizo para el Cerrado-Pantanal
Chichi Grillo y Rosa la Mariposa nos llevan a conocer y valorar la vida en el Pantanal boliviano
El trabajo de las artesanas del Pantanal boliviano

AMAZONIA VIVA:

Contaminación por mercurio en el Iténez
Problemática del mercurio
NUESTROS SOCIOS: El Instituto de Investigación para el Desarrollo (IRD) en Bolivia
Comunidades del Área Protegida Iténez hacia un futuro más sostenible
La Fuerza Naval de Bolivia y el Proyecto Centinela Ambiental
PUBLICACIONES VIVAS: Visión de Conservación de la Biodiversidad del Corredor Amboró-Madidi

VIDA FORESTAL:

Las instituciones públicas y su compromiso con la conservación de los bosques
La FTN Bolivia y la promoción de la oferta forestal certificada de Bolivia

MÁS VIDA:

4 de septiembre: Día Nacional de las Áreas Protegidas en Bolivia
Becas Príncipe Bernhard
Generando resultados de conservación a gran escala

Environmental protection vital to reducing natural disaster impact...

2008-05-19

Bonn, May 20, 2008 – Environmental degradation is a key factor turning extreme weather events into natural disasters, a new WWF report has found. WWF is urging governments to create suitable protected areas and to maintaining natural ecosystems, such as coastal mangroves, coral reefs, floodplains and forest, that may help buffer against natural hazards.

Natural Security: Protected Areas and Hazard Mitigation, prepared with environmental research group Equilibrium, examines in detail the impacts of floods in Bangladesh (2000), Mozambique (2000 and 2001) and Europe (2006), heat waves and forest fires in Portugal (2003), an earthquake in Pakistan (2005) and the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina in the USA (2005) in illustrating the natural disaster prevention and mitigation potential of environmental conservation.

"It is deforestation and floodplain development that most often links high rainfall to devastating floods and mudslides," said Liza Higgins-Zogib of the WWF's Protected Areas Initiative. "Extreme coastal events cause much more loss of life and damage when reefs are damaged, mangroves are removed, dune systems are developed and coastal forests are cleared."

The World Bank estimates that more than 3.4 billion people, or more than half of the world's population, are exposed to at least one natural hazard and according to the report, over the past 50 years the severity of impacts from natural disasters has increased, due in part to the loss of healthy ecosystems in the regions affected.

Examples of these impacts include a doubling of wave energy in the Seychelles as a result of reef destruction and sea level rise with a further doubling predicted over the next decade and evidence of greatly different levels of tsunami impact in neighbouring communities being related to the extent of reef protection and remaining mangrove coverage.

It also explores how the loss of upwards of 70 per cent of floodplains in the Danube and tributaries is contributing to increases in the frequency and severity of floods and how vegetation and land use changes change natural fire regimes and boost devastation levels from wildfires.

"While large-scale disasters cannot be entirely avoided, the report identifies specific ways we can mitigate the devastating impact of disasters through better ecosystem management, including the establishment of protected areas", said Jonathan Randall, senior program officer for WWF's Humanitarian Partnerships programme and co-author of Natural Security.

In one success story, the investment of US$1.1 million in mangrove replanting and other measures saves some Vietnamese communities an estimated US$7.3 million a year in sea dyke maintenance. During typhoon Wukong in 2000 the area remained relatively unharmed while neighbouring provinces suffered significant loss of life and property.

Similarly, the management of some 17% of Swiss forests mainly for their protective functions in reducing avalanches, landslides and flooding is calculated to provide protective services valued at an estimated US$2 to 3.5 billion per year.

WWF is urging governments to create suitable protected areas and to maintaining natural ecosystems, such as coastal mangroves, coral reefs, floodplains and forest, that may help buffer against natural hazards. It also calls on governments to maintain traditional cultural ecosystems that have an important role in mitigating extreme weather events, such as agroforestry systems, terraced crop-growing and fruit tree forests in arid lands.

In the many areas exposed to greater natural disaster risk through degraded ecosystems, WWF recommends that opportunities be provided for their active or passive restoration.

"We recognise that there have been many international agreements and declarations linking the preservation of ecosystem services with the mitigation of disasters, but note that in many cases it is only the permanent and well-managed setting aside of land and sea as protected areas which can provide the stability and protection so often called for," said Randall.

For further information:
Liza Higgins-Zogib, Manager People and Conservation, WWF International, +41 763777283, lhiggins-zogib@wwfint.org
Jonathan Randall, Senior Program Officer, WWF-US Humanitarian Partnerships Programme,
+1-202-725-3720, jonathan.randall@wwfus.org

Notes to editors:
• Natural Security: Protected Areas and Hazard Mitigation is available at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/natural_security_final.pdf
• Natural Security is the fifth volume in the WWF Arguments for Protection series, which is assembling evidence on the social and economic benefits of protected areas to strengthen support for park creation and management. Jonathan Randall will launch the report at the 9th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany on May 20.
• For more information on the Arguments for Protection series: www.panda.org/protection/arguments

About WWF
WWF, the global conservation organization, is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations. WWF has a global network active in over 100 countries with almost 5 million supporters.

WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

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Mongolia takes first steps towards PoWPA implementation

2008-01-29

Implementation of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) is a step closer in Mongolia following a workshop that, for the first time, brought together diverse stakeholders to support the Mongolian government's continuing commitment towards a representative, effectively managed, and sustainably financed network of protected areas in the country.

Landscape Outcome Assessment Methodology (LOAM) in Practice

2008-01-08

Conservation and development agencies, including WWF, IUCN and the World Bank, are increasingly focusing their efforts at a landscape level. In doing so, they face many challenges including identifying key values or functions of the landscape as a whole, as well as measuring and monitoring outcomes of their efforts in terms of biodiversity conservation, livelihood improvements and environmental services.

To help address these challenges, WWF developed the LOAM – Landscape Outcome Assessment Methodology. This approach is aimed at enabling those working on landscape scale initiatives to be better able to measure, monitor and communicate the nature and extent to which a landscape is changing over time with respect to a small number of agreed conservation and livelihood outcomes.

LOAM can also help us to understand better how our projects or programmes can have, or are having an impact within the context of the larger landscape. In this way, we can adapt our own activities so that, along with all the other things that influence the future of that landscape, they can help it to develop in a positive way.

This practical guide shows how one can go about implementing the methodology. It is based on hands-on experience gained to date in developing the approach.

WWFolio Bolivia Nº 11 - boletín de noticias trimestrales

2007-11-07

¡Disfrute la lectura de la edición de octubre de 2007 del boletín WWFolio Bolivia! En esta edición Usted podrá leer sobre:

EDITORIAL VIVO

¡Se puede y se debe! Editorial sobre las quemas y sus severos efectos

PANTANAL VIVO

El Pantanal: uno de los ocho Sitios Ramsar de Bolivia - Una oportunidad para la sostenibilidad de la región
Eco Pantanal 2007: Apoyando la gestión ambiental municipal responsable
Pez endémico en la Cuenca Alta del Río Paraguay: El Cíclido chiquitano (Bujurquina oenolaemus)
ANMI San Matías celebró sus diez años
Gestión de residuos con participación ciudadana

AMAZONIA VIVA

El Río Iténez en Bolivia registró la mayor cantidad de Bufeos del censo continental
La Fuerza Naval de Bolivia y el Proyecto Centinela Ambiental
Un paseo por las nubes: Un día en la Reserva del Norte de Tiquipaya
NUESTROS SOCIOS: Cideder
WWF promueve el fortalecimiento entre reservas bolivianas y peruanas

VIDA FORESTAL

www.panda.org/bolivia/ftn: La FTN y los enlaces de mercado vía Internet
Empresas forestales participantes de la FTN ya implementan su Política de Compra Responsable

MÁS VIDA

Registro Civil Silvestre: La naturaleza celebrada en versos

FINANZAS VIVAS

Conozca los socios de WWF Bolivia

Food Stores: Using Protected Areas to Secure Crop Genetic Diversity

2007-06-30

A research report by WWF, Equilibrium and the University of Birmingham, UK

Written by Sue Stolton, Nigel Maxted, Brian Ford-Lloyd, Shelagh Kell, and Nigel Dudley

Executive summary (extracts):

Plant genetic resources are a threatened but invaluable resource for present and future generations. Crop genetic diversity – both in cultivated plants (landraces) and the wild plants from which our crops originate (crop wild relatives or CWR) – provide important resources for food security, environmental sustainability and economic stability.

It is thus perhaps surprising, considering this socio-economic importance that the conservation of CWR has not been systematically addressed and the rapid declines in landraces have generated little international conservation concern.

Estimates of the global value associated with the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture vary from hundreds of millions to tens of billions of US dollars per year. Whatever the exact economic value, we do know that when agricultural disasters occur, plant genetic resources can provide solutions. For example, the corn blight which halved US yields in the 1970s was alleviated by use of genetic material from a wild relative.

But these vital safeguards are under threat. As more and more land is converted to meet human needs, the natural world is lost ... including in some cases our CWR. Landraces are also disappearing at alarming rates as agriculture becomes standardised and small farms are swallowed up in bigger developments. More insidious threats, such as climate change and contamination from genetically modified organisms, may further undermine our agricultural stability.

Protected areas can play a role in in situ conservation strategies of agricultural genetic diversity. Although the links between food security and protected areas have rarely been made explicit, our research demonstrates that protected areas are important in maintaining stability in agricultural systems. Just as botanic gardens in countries with colder climates often stimulate interest in the general public by including specimens of crops to show what a banana, coffee or rice plant looks like, so protected area managers can raise the profile of their protected areas by paying particular attention to native CWR species and advertising their presence to the potential user communities.

Many protected areas also encompass cultivated lands and increasing recognition of the social, environmental and economic value of landraces adds an important dimension to the values of these areas. In particular, this report therefore looks at how protected area managers can find which CWR species are present in the protected area they manage and how they might adapt management practices to facilitate conservation of CWR and landraces.

The report also includes an analysis of the protection status of those ecoregions, as identified by WWF, which are particularly important for the conservation of crop genetic diversity. In total 29 (82 per cent) of the 34 ecoregions that include major centres of crop diversity have protection levels of under 10 per cent, and six areas (18 per cent) have protection levels of one per cent or less. Coupled with evidence of high levels of habitat conversion in many of these areas, it would seem that governments and the international community should be giving far higher priority to crop genetic diversity when deciding the location of protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - CBD Programme of Work for Protected Areas

2007-06-06

Factsheet giving an overview of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Activities in Europe, Central Asia, and Africa

2007-06-06

Factsheet on activities in Europe, Central Asia, and Africa for WWF's Protected Areas for a Living Planet programme, which aims to help governments achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Dinaric Arc Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF's Protected Areas for a Living Planet Dinaric Arc Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Caucasus Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF's Protected Areas for a Living Planet Caucasus Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Carpathian Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF's Protected Areas for a Living Planet Carpathian Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Protected Areas for a Living Planet - Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Project

2007-06-06

Factsheet on WWF's Protected Areas for a Living Planet Altai-Sayan Ecoregion Project, which aims to help governments from the ecoregion achieve the 2012/2012 targets of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas - an historic commitment by 190 governments to create a global network of comprehensive, well-managed, and representative terrestrial and marine protected areas.

Evaluación Rápida de la Efectividad de Manejo en las Áreas Silvestres Protegidas de la Ecorregión Valdiviana

2007-05-04

Management Effectiveness Assessment of Protected Areas in Chile's Valdivia Ecoregion using WWF's RAPPAM Methodology

High Conservation Value Forests: The concept in theory and practice

2007-02-05

This brochure will interest anyone seeking solutions for forest use that look at not only the economic value of forests but also the critical social and ecosystem values and services which forests provide to people and nature.

Readers will be able to learn about the concept of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) and how it has been applied throughout the world. They will also be able to see how the concept has been used in many different settings and by a wide range of stakeholder groups, including:

government policy-makers involved in conservation, forestry and landscape planning;
forest managers and owners interested in responsible forest management and certification;
investors and donors concerned with reducing the social and environmental risks of their support to forest sector projects; and
organizations working in conservation and sustainable development.

The brochure also includes a brief discussion of how the HCVF concept and its uses may develop in the future.

In the last five years, the HCVF concept has been picked up by many groups around the world and used in many different applications. This rapid expansion has been accompanied by exciting innovations but has also brought challenges in maintaining consistency in how the concept has been used and clarity in how it has been understood. It has also made it difficult to keep track of all the innovation and experimentation going on.

The aim of this brochure is therefore to clarify the concept, show its strengths and limitations, illustrate how it has been applied throughout the world, and look forward to how the concept may evolve in the future.

Payments for Environmental Services - An equitable approach for reducing poverty and conserving nature

2006-06-22

WWF publication on Payments for Environmental Services (June 2006) which gives an overview of current PES schemes and players, WWF's approach to equitable PES; and field examples of equitable PES projects (Guatemala, Peru, The Philippines, Tanzania, Indonesia and Eastern Europe).

The concept of payments for environmental services (PES) has received substantial interest in recent years as a way of creating incentive measures for managing natural resources, addressing livelihood issues for the rural poor, and providing sustainable financing for protected areas.

The basic idea is that those who "provide" environmental services by conserving natural ecosystems should be compensated by beneficiaries of the service.

WWF and its partners are developing a new, holistic PES approach that explicitly aims to balance poverty reduction with conservation, and to do so with social justice and equity. We see this equitable PES as one financing mechanism for conservation that, in the appropriate circumstances, will deliver both sustainable natural resource management and improved livelihood security for the rural poor.