World Expertise in Protected Areas to Sydney

Ministry of the Environment
Publication date 7.11.2014 12.08
Type:News item
Oulanka National Park, a member in the global protected area network. © Tapio Heikkilä, YHA-kuvapankki

The IUCN World Parks Congress will start on 12 November in Sydney, Australia. The congress, organised every ten years, will gather over 6000 protected area management specialists and scientist.

The WPC Team Finland includes altogether 20 people from the Ministry of the Environment, Finnish Environment Institute, Parks & Wildlife Finland (formerly Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services), and the youth council of the Saami Parliament and the University of Helsinki.

The World Parks Congress is the most important protected area event in the world and the previous WPC of Durban, South Africa in 2003 resulted in the setting up of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas. The first congress was organised 60 years ago in Seattle, USA.

The main theme of the WPC is Parks, People, Planet: inspiring solutions. The streams include:

  • Reaching Conservation Goals
  • Responding to Climate Change
  • Improving Health and Well-being
  • Development Challenges
  • Good Governance
  • Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge and Culture
  • Inspiring New General

Major cross-cutting themes include marine and capacity building. The presentations of the WPC Team Finland cover health benefits, visitor monitoring, local economic effects good governance, management categories, of protected areas, Baltic cooperation in marine protected areas, sustainable wildlife management, protected areas as natural solutions for water security, climate change communication and zonation tools for selecting protected areas.

You will be able to follow #WPCTeamFinland on Twitter.

Ministerial Adviser Marina von Weissenberg of the Ministry of the Environment attends the IUCN Council Meeting is organised also in Sydney 7 to 11 November, as she is one of IUCN’s Vice-Presidents.

The IUCN World Parks will end on 19 November.

IUCN is the oldest and largest global environmental network. It is a unique union of governments and NGOs with 1200 member organisations from 160 countries. The IUCN National Committee of Finland is the cooperation forum for Finnish members. The IUCN Commissions gather the expertise of some 11 000 professionals, 1700 of them in the World Commission on Protected Area.

More information:

  • Twitter #WPCTeamFinland

Ministerial Adviser Marina von Weissenberg, IUCN Vice-President, Ministry of the Environment, mobile +358 50 307 0806 (in Sydney, +9 hours)

Senior Advisor Liisa Nikula, IUCN National Committee Secretary, Parks & Wildlife Finland, mobile +358 40 528 8467 (in Finland)