One Earth paper just published by the ENVISION project team on tensions and prospects for inclusive conservation of protected areas – implications for the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework (Draft)
 
The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (First Draft)2 has targets on the fair and equitable sharing of nature’s benefits (Target 13) and ensuring equitable and effective biodiversity decision-making (Target 21). It is thus timely to consider how protected area management can widen its frame to include biodiversity conservation, equity and well-being goals through ‘inclusive conservation’ which seeks to recognise the plurality of values and visions of multiple stakeholders.
 
The ENVISION project, led by Prof. Christopher Raymond at the Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, just published a paper in One Earth entitled: Inclusive conservation and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework: Tensions and prospects  (see: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.02.008).  This paper outlines four tensions associated with the implementation of inclusive conservation approaches in protected area management globally:
  1. Supporting area-based conservation vs. cross-boundary landscape management
  2. Recognising vs. reducing plurality in the visions for and values of nature
  3. Incorporating local and experiential knowledge into the dominant Western knowledge system
  4. Acknowledging power relations in conservation: seeking consensual outcomes vs. embracing dissent
Drawing upon protected area management case examples from Sweden, The Netherlands, United States and Spain, the paper then presents a governance frameworkthat can be used to recognise, soften and, where possible, reframe these tensions. More specifically:
  1. Recognising hybridity and multiple layers of tension
  2. Softening tensions by enabling conditions for reflexivity
  3. Reframing tensions through forging new partnerships.

ENVISION is funded through the 2017-2018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme, and with the support of the following national funders: Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (FORMAS), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Grant: FKZ:01LC1806A), Germany, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), US National Science Foundation (grant number 1854767), a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. National Park Service (P18AC00175), the University of Illinois Campus Research Board (RB19119), and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain.