Protected Areas and World Heritage Programme

Guidelines for Protected Area Management Categories

Area containing predominantly unmodified natural systems, managed to ensure long term protection and maintenance of biological diversity, while providing at the same time a sustainable flow of natural products and services to meet community needs.

• to protect and maintain the biological diversity and other natural values of the area in the long term;
• to promote sound management practices for sustainable production purposes;
• to protect the natural resource base from being alienated for other land-use purposes that would be detrimental to the area's biological diversity; and
• to contribute to regional and national development.

• The area should be at least two-thirds in a natural condition, although it may also contain limited areas of modified ecosystems; large commercial plantations would not be appropriate for inclusion.
• The area should be large enough to absorb sustainable resource uses without detriment to its overall long-term natural values.

Management should be undertaken by public bodies with a unambiguous remit for conservation, and carried out in partnership with the local community; or management may be provided through local custom supported and advised by governmental or non-governmental agencies. Ownership may be by the national or other level of government, the community, private individuals, or a combination of these.

This category does not correspond directly with any of those in the 1978 system, although it is likely to include some areas previously classified as 'Resource Reserves', 'Natural Biotic Areas / Anthropological Reserves' and 'Multiple Use Management Areas / Managed Resource Areas'.