The GEF SGP 'Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation initiative' (COMPACT) was prominently featured at the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC), attracting the interest of practitioners from all over the world concerned with balancing conservation and livelihoods, governance of natural resources, and protected areas. Held every four years, the IUCN WCC is considered by many the "world's largest conservation event" that aims to improve how we collectively manage and govern our natural environment for human, social and economic development. The 2012 WCC, which took place in Jeju, Republic of Korea (6–15 September 2012), brought together over 5,000 conservation experts from 153 countries, presenting over 600 events. IUCN estimates that a total of 10,000 people participated in the Congress.
A series of events at the WCC also marked 2012 as the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention, inviting a particular focus and discussion on the rights of indigenous peoples' and local communities, stakeholder participation in UNESCO designation processes, and governance mechanisms to engage communities.
GEF SGP participated in a flagship panel convened by IUCN and UNESCO on 'The World Heritage Convention at 40: Engaging the IUCN constituency for conservation and communities'. Terence Hay-Edie (GEF SGP, Programme Advisor) and Jessica Brown (Chair, IUCN Protected Landscapes Specialist Group) provided an overview of the COMPACT model and lessons learned, while Nellie Catzim of the Southern Environmental Association in Belize (a GEF SGP partner organization) provided the perspective of a community partner working in support of the World Heritage (WH) marine seascape. In a special session in the IUCN Protected Planet Pavilion, GEF SGP announced its forthcoming benchmark publication COMPACT: Engaging Local Communities in Stewardship of World Heritage, featuring 12 years of GEF SGP work in the COMPACT programme co-financed by the United Nations Foundation (UNF).
GEF SGP also shared its experience through presentations on the landscape/ seascape conservation model and planning frameworks in a workshop on 'New Models for Engaging Local Communities in Stewardship of Protected Areas: Lessons from World Heritage'. Vololona Rasoarimanana (GEF SGP National Coordinator, Madagascar) and Bonifacio Tobias (COMPACT Local Coordinator, Philippines) participated in this event where they highlighted the country level experiences of GEF SGP. Held in the 'Community Ma-eul' space hosted by the UNDP Equator Initiative, the session included presentations on the GiZ-supported 'Go4BioDiv' youth programme, which targets young people in 25 World Heritage Sites (WHS) across five continents. Staff from the IUCN World Heritage Programme and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre served as respondents, exploring potential new partnerships to replicate the model. A report on the workshop can be found on the website of the Equator Initiative.
Vololona Rasoarimanana, GEF SGP Madagascar presents during a session on the governance of protected areas alongside the Director of the US and Colombia National Parks Service, UNEP WCMC, and other international partnersIn addition, the GEF SGP team was active in a variety of other sessions at the WCC. Terence Hay-Edie gave presentations on GEF SGP's work to support indigenous and community conserved areas and territories (ICCAs), as well as efforts to promote agro-biodiversity conservation and local biodiversity products in a well-attended two-part session organized by The Christensen Fund on 'Transforming Agriculture, Transforming Conservation: New Partnerships for global environmental resilience and food sovereignty'. This session included a set of high-level speakers from the Sustainable Food Trust, FAO, indigenous representatives from the Potato Park in Peru, Ethiopian Highlands, and Philippines Rice Terraces, Bioversity International, and Hawaii Botanic garden.
Vololona Rasoarimanana also served as a panelist in Conservation Campus and an IUCN workshop on 'More Effective and Equitable Nature Conservation: Lessons on Governance of Diverse Protected Areas', joining the directors of the national park agencies of Colombia and the United States respectively. As a result of the WCC, additional partnership opportunities between GEF SGP, UNESCO WHC and IUCN will be presented at the final event of the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention scheduled to take place in Kyoto, Japan, in November 2012.
Contact: Terence Hay-Edie, Programme Advisor, GEF SGP, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.