The methodology was developed by the World Commission on Protected Areas and is published under the title: Evaluating Effectiveness: A framework for assessing management of protected areas.

“At first, we were unsure as to the usefulness of this project” confided Dr. V.B. Mathur of the Wildlife Institute of India, “but after having applied the methodology in two of our World Heritage Sites, we are quite pleased with the results”.  The two World Heritage sites referred to are Keoladeo  and Kaziringa National Parks; the first a former duck-hunting reserve of the Maharajas and prime habitat for vast numbers of migratory birds from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, China and Siberia; the second, a 378 sq. km park in the floodplains of the Brahmaputra, and home to the one-horned rhino, tigers and elephants. 

Moses Mapesa, Deputy Director - Field Operations, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) explained how the project came at a time when the UWA was starting to look at management-effectiveness issues throughout its protected areas system.  “It came at a most propitious time,” he said.  “We’re using the Enhancing our Heritage project experience at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park [BFNIP] as the model, and we are now expanding the management effectiveness methodology across the entire protected areas network of the country – that’s ten national parks and 13 wildlife reserves”.  BFNIP was declared a World Heritage Site in 1994 and provides one of the richest habitats in East Africa for birds, butterflies, and mammals, the latter includes chimpanzees and more than half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas - over 300 individuals.  The UWA recently received a $30M World Bank loan to help strengthen the national protected areas system.  Some of those funds will be used to expand management effectiveness training to other site managers.

“This bringing together of site managers from around the world is a valuable experience,” assures Dr. Marc Hockings, overall project manager and University of Queensland senior lecturer and World Commission on Protected Areas Vice-Chair for the Theme Programme on Management effectiveness.   “Each site faces a set of particular challenges and develops what can be innovative means to overcome them.  It’s good to have these people come together – it strengthens the collective resolve and helps us all prepare of phase II of the project.”  Phase one consisted of carrying out a detailed assessment of a site’s condition, its conservation values, and the identification of management targets.  Phase two will have the site managers carry out activities to improve site management effectiveness, with the option to deal with some of the threats identified.  A third phase will consist of monitoring the impacts of management activities to measure how these have contributed to attaining the management targets.

This four year project funded by the United Nations Foundation with the support of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre hopes to be the beginning of a broader effort worldwide to improve protected area management effectiveness.  The Latin American contingent at the meeting has already prepared a (USD)$5M  proposal to expand the project to all 34 natural World Heritage sites in that region.  “This is a strong indicator of the usefulness of the methodology, and its relevance in light of perceived protected area challenges of the early 21st century,” claimed Dr. Natarajan Ishwaran, Chief of the Nature section, World Heritage Centre.  “The World Heritage Centre is very pleased to see the enthusiasm among World Heritage Site managers and we will do all we can to facilitate its further application,” he added.

For more information on the project, please contact:

Dr. Marc Hockings  m.hockings@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Marc Patry ma.patry@unesco.org