Best Practice Guidelines
IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Global Protected Areas Programme (GPAP) maintain the IUCN WCPA Best Practice Protected Area Guidelines, Technical Reports and related protected area publications. Since 2010, the Best Practice Guidelines series has been updated and endorsed by both IUCN and the Convention on Biological Diversity and contributes to the CBD Strategic Plan and Programme of Work on Protected Areas.
IUCN UNESCO Best Practice Guidelines No. 16: Sacred Natural Sites: Guidelines for Protected Area Managers
These guidelines primarily assist protected area managers, especially those with sacred sites located within the boundaries of their legally established protected areas. However they are also applicable to the wider landscape and useful to a much wider audience such as planning authorities, NGO’s and of course the custodians of scared naturals iets themselves. The guidelines contain 44 guidance points grouped into six principles and 16 case studies. They are available in English, Spanish, Estonian, Russian, Korean and Japanese with more translations underway.
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IUCN Best Practice Guidelines: Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature in Protected Area Management and Governance
These Best practice Guidelines concern the promotion and integration of the cultural and spiritual significance of nature in protected and conserved area management and governance. They take a broad approach and consider what different natural features, as well as the wider landscape and seascape mean to people of different cultures and societies, from traditional to modern. This encompasses aesthetic, artistic, linguistic, scientific, historical, ethological, therapeutic, recreational, wellbeing, religious and spiritual aspects and even overall conceptions of nature.
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