IUCN  (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and WCPA (World Commission on Protected Areas) recently published a new and updated edition of the Guidelines for applying the IUCN protected area management categories to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

Make sure you have the latest version!

Marine and sustainable fisheries management are crucial to keep our oceans in a good state. The primary purpose of these supplementary guidelines is to use the IUCN categories for marine and coastal protected areas accurately and consistently.

The new guidelines apply the most recent definitions and clarify which areas qualify as Marine Protected Areas and should be counted towards global and national targets.

These marine guidelines aim to ensure that the IUCN categories can be effectively applied to all types of MPAs as well as to any marine components of adjoining terrestrial protected areas.

The first edition was published in 2012. This second edition was developed in response to the widespread incorrect application of the categories to Marine Protected Areas.

The correct use of these categories is particularly important as we will soon need to assess progress towards the 2020 marine component of Aichi Target 11, and for setting new targets in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Source: IUCN Guidelines for applying the IUCN protected area management categories to marine protected areas, 2019.

Download the publication here: IUCN Guidelines MPAs

In this way, you will ensure that you are accessing the most recently updated version of 2019. It replaces all previous versions, including those published in French and Spanish. This new edition should be translated in other IUCN languages as soon as possible.