Abstract:

The report underscores the importance of protected areas in sustaining the functions and values of natural ecosystems as well as the needs of human society. It highlights the nature-based solutions that protected areas make to critical environmental and societal challenges including climate change, food and water security, human health and well-being, and natural disasters. These functions will become ever more valuable as terrestrial, marine, coastal, and inland water ecosystems outside protected areas become compromised by over-exploitation, habitat loss and degradation. The 2016 edition call to build a better understanding of the value of investing in protected areas managed under a broad range of governance arrangements. This will require a concerted and coordinated engagement by all sectors, including expert organizations, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, governments, and business. Such a commitment is a fundamental component of success in the search to make protected and other conserved areas core elements of sustainable landscapes.