Consultant - Green List Pathway

**TERMS OF REFERENCE
**Optimizing the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas**
**Assessment Process ("Green List Pathway")
**Project**:Trilateral Cooperation (Germany, China, Zambia, Namibia): Fair and effective
protected area management for sustainable development - working together towards global
standards

**A. Background information**

The global conservation agenda underlines the importance of expanding protected and
conserved areas as a way to halt biodiversity loss. But to deliver conservation outcomes, a
shift towards quality issues is also required in addition to quantitative targets.

Addressing this issue is the mission of the **IUCN Green List Protected and Conserved Areas**
(GLPCA), the first global and only universal Standard of best practice for area-based
conservation. The Green List Standard aims to become the Rosetta Stone of metrics for area
- based conservation effectiveness, providing a global benchmark for how to meet the
environmental challenges of the 21st century, and in particular the post-2020 targets.

The IUCN Green List is also a programme of certification for protected and conserved areas
(PCAs) that are effectively managed and fairly governed. It acts as incentive and offers a
stepwise programme that can help make PCAs fit for the future and thus secure past
successes and future investments. Enrolled sites become part of a network and benefit from
technical support on how to improve their performance and impacts.

Protected and conserved areas that commit to achieving IUCN Green List status must
demonstrate and maintain the Standard in three steps. The first is to enter the Application
Phase and conduct a self-assessment. Sites provide initial evidence for five indicators (of 50)
to demonstrate readiness (IUCN Definition of a protected area, existence of a management
plan for example). Progress to the next phases are independently evaluated by a technical
Expert Assessment Group for the Green List (EAGL) and an impartial reviewer. In each Phase,
the views and consensus of stakeholders are sought to inform the area’s ongoing

One of the most anticipated developments is a simple pathway that will guide sites along the
journey towards achieving the Green List standard, making it simpler to access and
encouraging people to use it. The **Green List Pathway** aims to ensure a more streamlined
and user-friendly process. It will provide guide for experts, practitioners, implementing partners
to describe and optimize workflow for each step.

**B. Project**

**Project** with the support of Germany and China, which aims at improving the quality of
protected area management and governance in Zambia and Namibia through the
implementation of the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas. The project also
aims to foster experience sharing and learning with Chinese experts and practitioners. In this

context, a short-term consultancy to develop capacity development materials, improved
guidance and tools for the implementation of the IUCN Green List is offered. During the
execution of the mission, the appointed consultant will work under the supervision of IUCN,
which will provide expertise on all aspects related to the Green List Standard.

**C. Objectives**

The main objective of the consultancy is to provide guidance on the Green List process from
the user's perspective. The first part prioritises the site managers who engage in a self
- assessment of their protected and conserved areas against the Green List Standard. The goal
is to develop an accessible logical framework that guides the site managers through the
process of completing the Green List indicators. In order to do this, the consultant can rely on
lesson learned from Green-listed sites, but also existing key documents of the Green List, as
of the main stakeholders in the programme; the Standard which describes the 17 criteria and
examples and references to fill in each criterion.

The Green List pathway will guide sites through the standard and generally approach the
Green List in a more intuitive way, and show the causal stages of preparing the nomination
and best way to access the Green List.

**D. Geographical Focus**

However, particular attention will be paid to ensuring that the Green List Pathway is relevant
to Eastern and Southern Africa generally and particularly to Zambia and Namibia, notably in
testing phase.

**E. Activities**

Based on the above objectives, we require the following deliverables:
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- Carry out a functional analysis of the tasks, workflows and processes required for

Green Listing including time and resources required
- Consult (survey, focus groups) with site managers and EAGLS’ members to optimize

the self-evaluation process from the user's perspective, including cost-effectiveness
- Compile best practices and recommend improvements in the process
- Presents an overview of the process with a brief explanation of what should be

considered in each step, workflow with key milestone