APAP meeting agrees on future priorities as run-up to Technical Workshop
The IUCN Asia Regional Office (ARO) hosted the Asia Protected Areas Partnership (APAP) planning workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, between 23 – 24 January. Participants, representing the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Wildlife Institute of India, as well as the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) , discussed and prepared APAP’s strategy for the period 2023 – 2030, particularly on synergizing with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and its Target 3 outlining the “30x30” approach. At the same time, the workshop prepared the detailed programme of the next APAP Technical Workshop planned in March / April 2023.
The meeting was convened by the two APAP co-chairs, Mr Rohit Tiwari and Dr Dindo Campilan, each representing the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and IUCN ARO. Dr Madhu Rao, Chair of WCPA, led the Commission delegation and presented “The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: Moving from dialogue to implementation”. Facilitating the event was Mr Mohammad Khalid Sayeed Pasha and the APAP secretariat hosted by IUCN ARO.
During the meeting, participants agreed on the broad priorities and strategic engagement vision for 2030 (Figure 1) as well as the specific workplan for 2023 (Table 1). APAP’s key priorities and strategic engagement are framed by four inter-related areas: transboundary protected areas, other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), quality and effectiveness of the protected and conserved areas, as well as marine protected areas. These are translated into eight action points for 2023, starting with the Technical Workshop to be hosted by India.
Further during the meeting, it was agreed that the next Technical Workshop will be held in March or April in Dehradun, India. The workshop, under the theme “Moving Towards Implementation of Target 3: Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”, will be preceded by a Steering Committee meeting in the morning of the first day.
Date: 13 – 16 March or 26 – 29 April, 2023
Venue: Wildlife Institute of India (Wildlife Institute Rd, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India)
Day 1 AM | Steering Committee meeting on membership, governance, financing, …etc. |
PM | Country updates based on individual gap analysis |
Day 2 AM | OECMs – sharing what each country has done so far & introduction of the OECMs toolkit |
PM | Mainstreaming Marine and Coastal PCAs within Asia |
Day 3 | Developing the overall strategy for APAP |
Day 4 | Field visit (en-route: Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary) |
Mr Rohit Tiwari, IG Wildlife, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, also the APAP Co-Chair, noted that “the APAP Secretariat will work with the member countries in the region to facilitate effective implementation of GBF, especially building capacity for the post-2020 GBF Target 3 to enable 30x30 agenda across Asia.”
Also in his capacity as the APAP Co-Chair, Dr Dindo Campilan, IUCN Regional Director for Asia and Hub Director for Oceania, stated that “APAP’s strategic value, as regional collaborative platform for PCA knowledge-sharing and capacity building, is now even more important with its member-countries -- as CBD Parties -- launching actions for implementing GBF Target 3. It’s a prime example of IUCN’s unique convening role, in this case PCA agencies across Asia, to work towards shared goals for nature conservation.”
For more information, please contact:
Khalid Pasha, Asia Coordinator-Protected and Conserved Areas & IUCN Green List. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.