Developing landscape approaches to conservation remains a key area of interest. In 2011 Nigel's book on the concept of authenticity of ecosystems, Authenticity in Nature: Making Choices about the Naturalness of Ecosystems, for Earthscan was published in the autumn. We developed the concept of authenticity in our earlier work on forest quality; this project applies it more generally from a social and ecological perspective and looks at practical implications for land and water management.
2011 is the International Year of Forests, and throughout this year we are working with WWF’s on their Living Forests Report a year‑long conversation with partners, policymakers, and business about how to protect, conserve, sustainably use, and govern the world’s forests in the 21st century. To understand the many pressures on forests and the best way to protect, manage and restore forests over the next 40 years WWF has commissioned the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna to develop the Living Forests Model; which allows us to explore, in a series of chapters produced throughout 2011, various global land-use scenarios. The model calculates the effect of forces such as population growth and consumer demand, and describes possible consequences on key areas such as food production, climate change, biodiversity, commodity prices and economic development. Nigel continues to serve on the High Conservation Value technical committee, run out of ProForest in Oxford, UK.
Equilibrium runs a database of tools for implementing broad-scale conservation. The Earth Conservation Toolbox http://www.earthtoolbox.net/ contains information and where possible web links to over 300 tools. If you know of conservation tools you think should be included, please contact us.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) remains a major focus for our work. We continue to work on the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories. We assessed the category status of several South Korean national parks in 2009 and 2010; have been invited to complete the task in 2011. We have also been working with a group within IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) to develop more detailed guidance on applying the categories in marine protected areas and with the IUCN UK Committee on re-categorising protected area management categories in the UK and in the Balkans with IUCN's Programme Office for South Eastern Europe.
We continue to work on protected area management effectiveness; Nigel is part of a team assessing the Colombia National Parks and Sue continues working on the Implementation of the UNESCO Enhancing our Heritage project to monitor natural World Heritage Sites; most recently in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. We have also been working on adapting the methodology for cultural sites. Sue is also working with IUCN on developing guidelines for assessing the conservation status and outlook of natural World Heritage Sites for a new reporting process being planned for 2012. We are also developing a new system for ensuring effective management in tiger range countries with WWF and the Wildlife Institute of India.
Much of our 'field work' continues to be in Asia. Nigel has been working with the Vietnam Conservation Fund, based in Hanoi; which aims to kickstart new protected areas or work in areas which have poor capacity in a country with a lot of unique wildlife species but also huge conservation problems. Sadly it now seems likely that the last rhino in southeast Asia was killed by poachers in Cat Tien National Park this April: the subspecies is just hanging on in Java but is under severe threat there too. Nigel is thus also carrying out an analysis of lessons to be learned from the Vietnamese experience that could be applied to other species at the very edge of extinction for WWF International whilst working in Vietnam. A project looking at links between faiths and protected areas in the Terrai Arc is ongoing.
We are working on several publications in 2011planned for launch in 2012. Nigel is lead editor on the third volume in the series on Category V Protected Areas, in association with IUCN and GTZ, looking at biodiversity in protected landscapes. Sue is part of the overall editorial team for the series. Our work with IUCN on a manual on managing natural World Heritage sites is almost complete and will be released in early 2012. We are also working on a publication for IUCN WCPA on restoration in protected areas.
Nigel is currently vice-chair for the World Commission on Protected Areas on capacity building and this is taking a great deal of our volunteer time. Both Nigel and Sue are also on the steering committee of a joint World Commission on Protected Areas – Species Survival Commission task force looking at links between biodiversity and protected areas; and we are both involved in several other WCPA task forces. In 2011 WCPA awarded us the Kenton Miller Award for ‘outstanding innovation in making sustainable the world’s national parks and protected areas’.
Over the last few years our work has focused primarily on our core areas of concern: broadscale conservation and protected areas (often together). But we continue to carry out other projects that are of interest.
However along with our work on the Living Forest Report, see above, we are also currently involved in the 2012 version of WWF's Living Planet Report.
Equilibrium has been involved in working on two volumes of the major research programme The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), focusing in particular on the role of protected areas and natural ecosystems. The project has included a series of workshops in Europe, in Brussels, Prague and Vienna. The full results of the TEEB study were launched at the CBD's COP-10 in Japan and were published by Earthscan in 2011 .
