Santiago de Cali, Colombia. At the 2008 World Conservation Congress, in Barcelona, IUCN approved a motion for “Building a Conservation Vision for the Amazonian Biome.” This will guarantee greater support and participation from the administration, commissions and members of IUCN, as well as from donors and other organizations, for this process which is led by the Latin American Network for Technical Cooperation for National Parks, Other Protected Areas and Wild Flora and Fauna (REDPARQUES), with the participation of the nine Amazonian countries, along with regional and international NGOs. This process will be presented as a regional implementation initiative within the Work Plan for Protected Areas at the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (COP), in Japan.

This initiative will complement national biological and cultural conservation strategies, thanks to the implementation of the Work Plan for Protected Areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which contributes to maintaining an Amazon that is whole, functional and resilient in the face of climate change.

The motion was proposed by Julia Miranda, director of National Natural Parks of Colombia, in her role as the Regional Coordinator for REDPARQUES and was supported by the National Secretariat for Biodiversity and Forests of Brazil, Jim Leape, WWF International Director General, WWF Brazil, WWF Colombia, the Colombian IUCN Committee and other members.

“We believe that REPARQUES, as a technical work team, plays a fundamental role in supporting countries in the development of regional exercises for the implementation of the Program of Work on Protected Areas,” stated Miranda, “In the Amazon, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the development of a conservation vision, along with similar exercises for other biomes in Latin America, are priorities for the network. Thus, REDPARQUES will coordinate the follow-up on the agreed upon work agenda and facilitate processes of exchange and socialization in different spaces, such as the World Conservation Congress, in order to strengthen alliances.”

At an event organized by WWF, “A New Focus for Conservation: Creating the Necessary Scales for Conservation” during the World Conservation Congress, Miranda gave the presentation, “Towards a Regional Conservation Vision for the Amazonian Biome”, which emphasized the technical work agenda agreed upon by the Amazonian countries and led by REDPARQUES - with support from the IUCN, WWF, the CDB Secretariat, ACTO, OAS, TNC, WCS and other organizations. The presentation also recognized the need to move forward in the agenda jointly with indigenous and local communities, recognizing their ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as their interests and commitment to conservation.

“Thanks to this motion, we can continue advancing in this process, which will serve as an inspiring example of the implementation of the Program of Work on  Protected Areas for other regions”, said Mary Lou Higgins, director of WWF Colombia.. “This is also a great opportunity for the countries and the IUCN, its members, commissions and other partners to achieve significant gains in the conservation of the ecological processes and functionality of one of the most important regions on the planet”.

Notes for the Editor:

1.      REDPARQUES led the Workshop for the Creation of an Amazonian Conservation Vision (Bogota, Colombia, August 28-30), where nine Amazonian countries decided to develop this initiative, creating a regional approach for the implementation of the  Program of Work on Protected Areas as a complement to each country’s national system (COP 9 Decision IX/18). This event was supported by the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Organization for American States (OAS), the Amazonian Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Conservation International (CI), World Conservation Society (WCS), IUCN and WWF. Later, at the Regional Meeting on Capacity Building for the Convention on Biological Diversity (Salinas, Ecuador, September 23-25), organized with the Ecuadorian government, the countries in the region prioritized the development of sub-regional implementation initiatives for the Work Plan for Protected Areas and the Amazonian countries supported the work agenda proposed in Bogota.

2.      The organizations that supported the motion for the process of building an Amazonian conservation vision are: WWF Brazil, Fundacion Humedales (Colombia), la Fundación Moisés Bertoni (Paraguay), Asociación Peruana para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (APECO), Centro Inderdisciplinario de Estudios Comunitarios, Vitalis (Venezuela), Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas - IPÊ (Brazil), Fundação Vitória Amazônica – FVA (Brazil), Fundação Museu do Homem Americano – Fumdham (Brazil), Associação em Defesa do Meio Ambiente –Adema (Brazil), Fundación Natura, (Colombia), Provita (Venezuela), Comité Nacional Pro Fauna y Flora (Chile), and Conservation International Brazil.

3.      The 2008 World Conservation Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, October 5-14, convened more than 8,000 world leaders responsible for decision making on sustainable development – attendees included governments, NGOs, the private sector, United Nations and academia. There they debated critical topics, including climate change, ecosystem goods and services and biodiversity and its relation to cultural, social and economic well-being of communities.

4.      COP 10 of the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held October 18-29, 2010, in Nagoya, Japan. One of the topics on the agenda is the evaluation of the Work Plan for Protected Areas, adopted at COP 7, Decision VII/28 (February 9-2, 2004, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

5.      The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network. IUCN is a democratic union that brings together more than 1,000 governmental and non-governmental organizations, along with 11,000 scientific volunteers and experts from around 160 countries. The work of the IUCN is supported by a staff of 1,000 professionals in 60 offices and hundreds of partners in the public, NGO and private sectors around the world.

6.      The Latin American Network for Technical Cooperation on National Parks, Other Protected Areas, and Wild Flora and Fauna (REDPARQUES) is a technical entity composed by public and private institutions and specialists from the member countries. Its goal is to progressively increase the technical capacity of its members through exchanges of experience and knowledge, using its own technical, human and financial resources. By agreement of its members, the regional office of the FAO in Santiago, Chile acts as the Technical Secretariat.

7.      National Natural Parks of Colombia (UAESPNN) is a department of the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development (MAVDT) with administrative and financial autonomy, charged with the management and administration of the National Natural Park System and other issues as assigned and delegated by Article 19 of Decree 216 of 2003. Among its functions, UAESPNN is responsible to propose and implement the policies, plans, projects, norms and procedures related to areas in the National Natural Park System and to contribute to the development, consolidation and coordination of the National System of Protected Areas.

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

WWF works for a living planet and its mission is to stop the degradation of the planet'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

·          Promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

For More Information:

Sandra Tatiana Rodríguez M.
Communications Consultant - WWF Colombia
Tel + 57 2 558 25 77 Ext 217
strodriguez@wwf.org.co
Cali, Colombia