Dear Colleagues,

Biodiversity is under unprecedented pressure from human activities around the globe, yet much of the international development community continues with business as usual, following extractive models of development largely discredited due to failures to internalize nature’s values together with unfair distribution of benefits. In response to these pressures on nature, a common model of conservation emerged as protected areas such as national parks; and this model has been widely exported around the world. Most attention, however, has been on the design and management of protected areas (i.e., ‘what should be done’) rather than on the equally important (if not more so) matter of their governance (i.e., ‘who decides’ what to do).

Much of the Earth’s land area, though, has already been conserved apart from this relatively recent model of ‘fortress conservation’. Over a quarter of the global terrestrial area is (or until recently has been) managed successfully by local or indigenous peoples and local communities, overlapping with around 40% of terrestrial the world’s protected areas and large ecologically intact landscapes, yet such approaches are at risk of being replaced by other detrimental activities if local and indigenous ways are not duly recognized for their contributions to conservation as well as to human wellbeing.

Therefore, strengthening the actors and all key elements of the social–ecological systems that lead to de facto conservation as well as improving the effectiveness of formal designated protected areas are both of paramount importance. Having ‘the right people at the table’ and recognizing important issues of governance are amongst the most critical factors that help lead to long-term sustainability. Additionally, the fundamental values and beliefs of diverse actors lead to choices and actions, thus contributing to development and wellbeing as well as sense of identity and hope for the future.

In this Special Issue of the journal Sustainability, we seek to bring together a wide range of studies that recognize and reflect on the multiplicity of perspectives and diversity of values that are held by different stakeholders and rights holders in context of the world’s protected and conserved areas. How inclusive and collaborative approaches and cultural perspectives may influence, constrain, or encourage and enable conservation and sustainability is the core focus of this Special Issue. Studies may examine individual sites, or networks of spaces and places. Ideally, contributors will reflect not just on insular questions at single localities, but on the wider range and oft diverse/complex suite of actors, values, perspectives, and approaches present in the focal areas of their studies—thus being more representative of the scenarios faced in real life by every person, agency, or community, and from which lessons and recommendations may be drawn to achieve sustainability.

We particularly welcome contributions situated at the interface of protected and conserved areas, on one hand, and the mainstreaming of biodiversity and conservation throughout society and across sectors, on the other hand. Negotiating across these realms requires an open mind, as both values held by different stakeholders and more tangible aspects of ecosystem dynamics should be made explicit in order to better understand the dynamic processes at play in relation to sustainability.

This collection of articles will also contribute to an identification and better understanding of ‘best practices’ that are relevant for IUCN’s Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. For this purpose, we encourage contributions from equitably governed and managed protected and conserved areas around the world, with Sustainability being understood and considered from multiple overlapping and reinforcing social, economic, ecological, cultural, and spiritual perspectives. Furthermore, we hope that this collection may increase awareness and strengthen understanding of rights-based perspectives, particularly in light of a growing recognition of people’s legitimate right not only to water, food, health, education, shelter, etc., but also to biodiversity as the foundation for their livelihoods and ultimately culture.

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainable development
• social-ecological systems
• protected and conserved areas
• livelihoods
• inclusivity
• multi-stakeholder governance
• collaborative approaches
• policy & decision-making
• transdisciplinary research
• case studies