View source for PDF: COMPACT: Engaging local communities in the stewardship of World Heritage

'''Citation'''
<br> Brown, J. and Hay-Edie, T. (2013). COMPACT: Engaging local communities in the stewardship of World Heritage. New York: UNDP.
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===[https://iucn.oscar.ncsu.edu/mediawiki/images/a/a9/Brown%282013%29.pdf Download PDF]===
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'''Summary'''
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Preface:<br>
The United Nations Foundation (UNF) was established
by Ted Turner in January 1998 to support
the UN and its causes – with special emphasis on
population and women, the environment, children’s
health and selected humanitarian concerns.

A key element of the Foundation’s original environment
strategy was to support the conservation
of protected areas designated by the World
Heritage Convention (UNESCO, 1972) for their
global biodiversity significance. Nominated by the
nations in which they are located, World Heritage
sites are places of “outstanding universal value…for
whose protection it is the duty of the international
community as a whole to cooperate.”

Though they have defined boundaries, World
Heritage sites are very much a part of the
communities in which they are located. As
such, they provide rich opportunities to develop
and promote effective models for integrating
compatible human uses with the protection of
ecosystem functions and biodiversity.

World Heritage sites have the potential to showcase
the effective integration of sustainable local
development with conservation by demonstrating
how conservation can contribute to local and
national economic development, culture, and
pride. With this vision and aim in mind, the
UN Foundation joined forces over a decade ago
with the GEF Small Grants Programme implemented
by UNDP to develop and implement an
innovative and highly decentralized programme –
the Community Management of Protected Areas
Conservation (COMPACT) initiative.

Since 2000, the COMPACT programme has
been working with communities living in
the vicinity of eight World Heritage Sites in
Africa, Asia, Meso-America and the Caribbean.
Through extensive on-the-ground experience
and a participatory methodology that integrates
an evidence-based approach, COMPACT has
rigorously tested the claim that community-based
initiatives can significantly increase the
effectiveness of biodiversity conservation in
globally significant protected areas while also
improving local livelihoods.

The UN Foundation is pleased to note that the
$6 million in catalytic financing provided to the
UNDP has helped leverage an investment in excess
of $10 million from the GEF, as well as significant
levels of third party co-financing generated by
over 430 individual small grants disbursed to civil
society partners in the field. Through the support
provided by UNF, the programme has facilitated
extensive site level coordination of stakeholders,
leading to the creation of Local Consultative
Bodies and enhanced capacity for the decentralized
management of World Heritage sites. Not least,
through the many proposals developed by the
communities themselves, COMPACT has also
benefitted the lives of thousands of poor people
that rely on ecosystem services for their livelihoods
and well-being.

UNF is particularly delighted to see the rich body
of lessons learned emerging from COMPACT –
these range from community engagement in the
nomination of new sites, participatory planning
methodologies, as well as monitoring and
evaluation techniques – together representing
considerable potential for mainstreaming within
the operations of the World Heritage Convention,
as well as the safeguard of the planet’s biodiversity
for future generations.
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[https://sgp.undp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=327:compact-12-year-report-launched-at-unesco-world-heritage-committee-23-june-2013&catid=36:our-stories&Itemid=186#.VEmgbsl859s Original Document Source]