Untapped potential: Privately Protected Areas and their contribution to national and global biodiversity goals

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10/10/2025
17:00 - 17:45
The Nature Conservancy , Onsite

Why attend

PPAs are not only critical to meet the coverage component of the GBF Target 3 but also for empowering private governance. Nevertheless, PPAs are currently misunderstood, underrecognized and underreported. This session aims to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for PPAs to scale up efforts for recognition and documentation.

Session Description

Recognising and reporting private conservation efforts can fill gaps in national protected area systems in terms of geographic coverage, ecological representation and connectivity and protection of endangered habitats and species. Nevertheless, Privately Protected Areas (PPAs) have remained a largely hidden resource, being omitted from international conservation reporting mechanisms and left out of regional conservation strategies. With increasing demand for knowledge around area-based conservation and distinguishing between available conservation tools, there is an urgent need to provide clarity on what PPAs are, what they are not, and how they can contribute to fair, just and equitable biodiversity conservation. This session will discuss the recognition of PPAs, their importance for encouraging civil society led conservation and their contribution to sustainability, biodiversity and climate goals. Furthermore, we will address how to accurately report PPAs to global databases and will provide a range of good practice examples.
Organised by
The Nature Conservancy ( United States of America ) logo
The Nature Conservancy ( United States of America )
Partners
World Commission on Protected Areas
The Nature Conservancy ( United States of America )
International Land Conservation Network/Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Nature Conservancy of Canada logo
Nature Conservancy of Canada

Speaker

Speaker Sonia Castañeda

Deputy Director, Fundación Biodiversidad

Speaker James FITZSIMONS

Senior Advisor, Global Protection Strategies, The Nature Conservancy

Speaker Megan LAFFERTY

Manager, Land Protection Measures, Nature Conservancy of Canada

Speaker Chandni NAVALKHA

Director, Conservation and Stewardship, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Moderator

Speaker Brent MITCHELL

Senior Vice President (Also Vice Chair, IUCN WCPA), Quebec-Labrador Foundation