The UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-IWEH) from February to May hosted a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Environmental Land Degradation (ELD). The course demonstrated how to assess the economic benefits of land as a first step towards preventing degradation. It introduced methods of economic analysis and valuation to help you manage land sustainably and efficiently. This can be very relevant to support Protected Areas, as one of the shortlisted final works suggested (turning a Park and nearby city into a National Heritage Area to ensure its sustainable protection). The presentation of the shortlisted proposals can be watched on Youtube. All other videos of the course are also available.
(disclosure, I [Rianne, webmaster] was on the Culture and Environment team)
