The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has admitted 15 new natural sites to the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas – the first global standard recognising best practice in protected areas. Sites in Egypt, France, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru and the United Arab Emirates received the certification last Saturday, 24 November 2018, at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Egypt, bringing the total number of sites on the IUCN Green List to 40. The IUCN Green List is the first global standard of best practice for area-based conservation. It is a programme of certification for protected and conserved areas – national parks, natural World Heritage sites, community conserved areas, nature reserves and so on – that are effectively managed and fairly governed.The IUCN Green List also helps measure and accelerate progress towards Aichi Target 11, a UN biodiversity target which aims for 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine areas to be protected, effectively conserved and fairly managed by 2020. While the world is on track to meet the coverage aspect of Target 11, the ‘effectiveness’ aspect is still far from being reached.
Two of the newly added sites are located in Egypt, including Ras Mohammed National Park, a marine site near Sharm El-Sheikh where, thanks to effective conservation, some reefs boast a 90% coverage of live corals, compared to 30-40% on average for non-protected reefs in the Red Sea.See also the press release of IUCN
