The IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas

Title of the Flagship Initiative as it appears in the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD)

“Promote the “Green list” (IUCN World Parks Congress) in riparian states to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of parks managing bodies created”

Objectives

This Flagship Initiative is linked to Objective 2 of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD): “Promoting resource management, food production and food security through sustainable forms of rural development”.

This MSSD Flagship Initiative supports the protection of Biological diversity in the Mediterranean.

Context

The IUCN Green List is a global programme of certification aiming to achieve and promote effective, equitable, and successful protected and conserved areas by highlighting best practices, and providing a benchmark for progress towards effective and equitable management.

Its overarching objective is to increase the number of protected and conserved areas that are effectively and equitably managed and deliver conservation outcomes, contributing to SDG 15 “Life on land” and towards meeting Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The Green List is an important instrument for Protected Areas:

it requires the demonstration of measurable conservation outcomes that should be appropriate to the site level and its natural value;
it represents an approach through which an area can define an appropriate, shared and adaptive management plan that engages with stakeholders;
it includes periodical monitoring of obligations and can therefore help determine whether conservation outcomes are being achieved;
it allows collaborations in different contexts, both on site and at biogeographic level, as it is a shared and transparent methodology.

Achievements

In the Mediterranean, the IUCN Green List is promoted and supported by the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN-MED).

The Mediterranean Green List programme has achieved progress driven by national and sub-regional action.

Italy has relaunched the process, created and trained its Expert Assessment Group (EAGL), adapted the Standard to the Italian context and evaluated and submitted five sites to the Green List committee for final assessment.
Spain has relaunched the process, created and trained its EAGL, adapted the Standard to the Spanish context and is in process of assessing two candidate sites to the Green List.
France has been implementing the Green List since 2013, and currently has 15 listed sites. Eight new applications are under evaluation (2021). Two Mediterranean marine protected areas are on the Green List, namely Cerbere-Banyuls National Nature Reserve and the Blue Coast Marine Park.
A Regional Expert Assessment Group has been established in the Maghreb region. Seven candidate sites have been proposed by national agencies managing the Protected Areas of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The valuation process is underway (2021).
A meeting with managers and experts from North Africa, Lebanon and France took place in 2019 to promote experience sharing between Mediterranean sites involved in the Green List.

Partners

IUCN implements the Green List programme with many partners around the world, including the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and WWF.
The programme is supported by multiple donors, including Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) under the International Climate Initiative (IKI), and the European Life Programme.
In the Mediterranean area, IUCN supports the Green List through its network of regional offices: IUCN-MED and IUCN-Regional Office for West Asia (ROWA).
The Green List is supported and endorsed by the Italian and Spanish Ministries of Environment.
The programme is implemented in collaboration with several technical institutions that are committed to coordinate the process at the respective national level, among which Europarc Italy, Europarc Spain, the IUCN French Committee in Europe and the World Commission of Protected Areas in North Africa.
IUCN has also been promoting the application of the Green List Standard to Natura 2000 sites.

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