Protected area

[11] Indigenous peoples and local communities frequently criticize this method of fortress conservation for the generally violent processes by which the regulations of the areas are enforced.

[12] The definition that has been widely accepted across regional and global frameworks has been provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its categorisation guidelines for protected areas.

A wide variety of rights-holders and stakeholders are involved in the governance and management of protected areas, including forest protected areas, such as government agencies and ministries at various levels, elected and traditional authorities, indigenous peoples and local communities, private individuals and non-profit trusts, among others.

[15] This has led to the recognition of four main types of governance, defined on the basis of who holds authority, responsibility, and who can be held accountable for the key decisions for protected areas.

Many will be allocated primarily for species conservation whether it be flora or fauna or the relationship between them, but protected areas are similarly important for conserving sites of (indigenous) cultural importance and considerable reserves of natural resources such as; Annual updates on each of these analyses are made in order to make comparisons to the Millennium Development Goals and several other fields of analysis are expected to be introduced in the monitoring of protected areas management effectiveness, such as freshwater and marine or coastal studies which are currently underway, and islands and drylands which are currently in planning.

[22] Along with providing important stocks of natural resources, protected areas are often major sources of vital ecosystem services, unbeknownst to human society.

[28] The categories provide international standards for defining protected areas and encourage conservation planning according to their management aims.

Protecting places and natural resources is by no means a modern concept, whether it be indigenous communities guarding sacred sites or the convention of European hunting reserves.

Moreover, the idea of protection of special places is universal: for example, it occurs among the communities in the Pacific ("tapu" areas) and in parts of Africa (sacred groves).

However, the mass protected areas movement did not begin until late nineteenth-century in North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, when other countries were quick to follow suit.

[36] Since then, it has been an international commitment on behalf of both governments and non-government organisations to maintain the networks that hold regular revisions for the succinct categorisations that have been developed to regulate and record protected areas.

Recently, the importance of protected areas has been brought to the fore at the threat of human-induced global heating and the understanding of the necessity to consume natural resources in a sustainable manner.

ICCAs are "natural and/or modified ecosystems containing significant bio - diversity values and ecological services, voluntarily conserved by (sedentary and mobile) indigenous and local communities, through customary laws or other effective means".

PoWPA's objective was the "establishment and maintenance by 2010 for terrestrial and by 2012 for marine areas of comprehensive, effectively managed, and ecologically representative national and regional systems of protected areas that collectively, inter alia through a global network contribute to achieving the three objectives of the Convention and the 2010 target to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss.

"[40] Other effective area-based conservation measures complement protected areas across landscapes, seascapes, and river basins.

[41] Protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures are referenced together in Target 3 of the draft Global Biodiversity Framework, which is due to be agreed at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be held 5 to 17 December in Montreal, Canada.

[46] This has troubled relationships between conservationists and rural communities in many protected regions and is often why many Wildlife Reserves and National Parks face the human threat of poaching for the illegal bushmeat or trophy trades, which are resorted to as an alternative form of substinence.

[48] This increasing threat has often led governments to enforce laws and implement new policies to adhere to the initial goal of protected areas, though many illegal activities are often overlooked.

Scientific publications have identified 3,749 enacted PADDD events in 73 countries since 1892 which have collectively impacted an area approximately the size of Mexico.

[6] Scientists advocate that 50% of global land and seas be converted to inter-connected protected areas to sustain these benefits.

In light of ongoing disputes on the topic of optimal land usage, Dorji (et al.), in a study using camera traps to detect wildlife activity, summarize the results of a nationwide survey that compares the biodiversity of Bhutan's protected areas versus that of intervening non-protected areas.

[64] The regulation of such practices has allowed Bhutan's protected areas to thrive with high carnivore diversity and other rare mammals such as Chinese pangolin, Indian pangolin, mountain weasel (Mustela altaica), small-toothed ferret badger, Asian small clawed otter, the tiger, dhole (Cuon alpinus), Binturong, clouded leopard and Tibetan fox (Vulpes ferrilata).

[64] Also found to be prevalent were the large herbivore species: Asiatic water buffalo Bubalus arnee, golden langur, musk deer, and Asian elephant.

[64] The maintenance of these charismatic megafauna and other threatened species can be attributed to the intensity of Bhutan's management of its protected areas and its local communities' commitment to preserving them.

Lebanon, home to one of the highest densities of floral diversity in the Mediterranean basin, hosts tree species with critical biogeographical locations (southernmost limit) on the western slopes of Mount Lebanon’s mountain range and has passed laws to protect environmental sites at the national level, including nature reserves, forests, and Hima (local community-based conservation), with some of these sites having acquired one or more international designations:[74] There are three biosphere reserves in Lebanon that have been designated by the UNESCO:[75] O Parks, Wildlife, and Recreation is a private protected area, also known as a 'Private Reserve' predominantly managed for biodiversity conservation, protected without formal government recognition and is owned and stewarded by the O corporation International.

[76] O parks plays a particularly important role in conserving critical biodiversity in a section of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor known as the Paso del Istmo, located along the 12-mile-wide isthmus between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean.