14 principles of Ecoregion Conservation
1. WWF’s primary purpose is the conservation of biodiversity, which is the foundation for a future where humans live in harmony with nature.
2. Ecoregions are the appropriate geographical unit for setting conservation goals; they represent an ambitious and visionary scale necessary for biodiversity conservation.
3. Sharing ideas, promoting learning processes at different scales, and practising adaptive management are critical to rapid success.
4. WWF must be flexible in its outlook and be willing to adapt its own structures and operations to meet the needs of conservation in the ecoregion.
5. Ecoregion conservation programmes should develop a bold, engaging and ambitious vision for an ecoregion in order to set directions and garner support. This vision should contain an inspirational message to motivate and engage stakeholders and partners.
6. Ecoregion conservation plans must be flexible and allow for sound judgement when a change of course or tactic is necessary.
7. Operationally, implementation may take place at levels below the ecoregional scale, or outside the ecoregion, depending on the issue at hand. Threats analysis is an essential filter for figuring out the scale at which we should act.
8. Personal initiative and effective, empowered leadership are vital. Appropriate emphasis must be placed on training and capacity building.
9. Knowing who and when to engage in strategic partnerships throughout the entire ecoregion process is crucial to realize the vision. This may
include partnerships with stakeholders who represent a critical constituency but who may not normally be seen as conservation allies.
10. An inspiring vision must be combined with up-to-date reporting and transparency of goals, actions and achievements in order to build the commitment and ownership of partners to stay actively engaged.
11. Clear objectives and precise conservation targets are needed to guide, focus and monitor progress.
12. Long-term flexible financing must be focused at an ecoregional level (rather than site level) to give the programme a confident start and to maintain it. Novel and ambitious financial mechanisms that go beyond traditional WWF support must be actively pursued.
13. All conservation activities must be conceived and implemented in relation to the social and political realities in which they take place.
14. Appropriate institutional development is necessary to strengthen advocacy at several scales. This includes the harnessing of the full power of the WWF Network and key partners to make the most of political and high publicity opportunities.
