Shaping nature conservation in an integrated, equitable and fair way

Engaging local stakeholders in the Denali national park, Alaska Photo: Van Riper lab International research team including Göttingen University investigates areas of tension and prospects for inclusive approach to management of protected areas New global guidelines for the management of nature increasingly focus on environmental justice and fair and equitable decision-making. As part of the ENVISION project, researchers around the world, including the Universities of Kassel and Göttingen, examined the tensions and prospects in the reform of the management of protected areas, moving towards fair nature conservation management. The perspective piece was published in the journal One Earth. -Inclusive conservation-, as it is known, brings certain challenges. The first is whether conservation should stop at the boundaries of protected areas. "While the idea of a protected area provides clear boundary lines, cross-sector and cross-border landscape-based management approaches can work better at taking into account the realities of our interconnected world," says Professor Tobias Plieninger, who works at the Universities of Kassel and Göttingen. Conservation management has to involve many stakeholders and getting the balance right is a complex problem.