CLOSING THE GAP Creating ecologically representative protected area systems: A guide to conducting gap assessments of protected area systems for the Convention on Biological Diversity

Abstract

The following guide has been produced to help governments and others implement an aspect of one of these core elements: a gap analysis for a nation’s current system of protected areas, within the framework of the CBD. It provides background information and a step-by-step guide, outlines tools and existing information and gives some case studies, where real-life examples can help to illustrate particular points. Perhaps most important of all, given the great variability in access to biodiversity data around the world, it lays out some generalised principles and a framework within which a variety of approaches can be accommodated. It also acts as a portal to the Earth Conservation Toolbox, an on-line source of methodologies for the ecosystem approach in development that contains a large amount of information likely to be useful in carrying out both the gap analysis and other elements in the Programme of Work