Parks - IUCN

PARKS VOL 9 NO 3 • OCTOBER 1999
to society and our commitments to nature and culture in the face of such challenges?
One option that has been receiving considerable attention during recent years is
‘bioregional planning and management.’ (Miller 1996, TNC 1997, UNEP 1998, WWF
1998). The bioregional approach seeks to maintain biological diversity across entire
landscape regions while meeting people’s needs. The bioregional approach embodies
key characteristics (below), combining scientific, informational, social, and economic
considerations to define management opportunities and to implement programmes
of action and investment. A related approach has also been promoted for mountain
protected areas by Hamilton (1996) involving corridors of connected core areas
through managed nature-friendly lands among mountain ranges, or from summits to
the lowlands.
Key characteristics of bioregional management
Drawing from the elements and experience of Bioregionalism, Man and the
Biosphere Program, International Conservation and Development Projects, Protected
Area Management, and Ecosystem Management, we can identify 14 defining
characteristics of bioregional management work.
1 . Large, biotically viable regions
Bioregional management programmes embrace regions large enough to include the
habitats and ecosystem functions and processes needed to make biotic communities
and populations ecologically viable over the long-term. These regions must be able
to accommodate migratory patterns, anticipate nature’s time cycles, and absorb the
impacts of global change.
2. Leadership and management
The leadership to establish bioregional programmes may come from public agencies
or from the community of residents and resource users. The tasks of convening
stakeholders, preparing and negotiating vision statements, planning and implementing
agreed upon activities can be shared cooperatively between public and private
entities, or fully community-based.
3. A structure of cores, corridors, and matrices
These programmes include core wildland sites that feature representative samples
of the region’s characteristic biodiversity. Ideally such sites, which may already be
designated as protected areas, are linked by corridors of natural or restored wild
cover to permit migration and adaptation to global change. Both the core sites and
the corridors are nested within a matrix of mixed land uses and ownership patterns.
4. Economic sustainability
The livelihoods of people living and working within the bioregion, including those
in industry, and especially in the matrix, are encouraged. Appropriate incentives to
make optimal use of local resources, and apply sustainable technologies, are
combined with a system for sharing the costs and benefits of conservation and
managed use fairly.
5. Full involvement of stakeholders
All parties who can affect or benefit from the resources in the region develop skills,
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