...that by 2005, roughly 11%, or 420 million hectares, of the planet's forests were designated as protected areas, approximately half the size of the U.S.A.?

Who: Government funded parks sometimes fail to protect their park from outside influences like poachers, loggers, and other human activities.  For this reason, individuals, communities, corporations and non-governmental organizations have picked up the conservation torch and started running toward the goal of preserving 10% of land conserved for biodiversity. Together we can reach the finish line.

What: The definition of private protected area crafted at the 2003 IUCN World Parks Congress was “a land parcel of any size that is:
          1) predominately managed for biodiversity conservation
          2) protected with or without formal governmental recognition
          3) is owned or otherwise secured by individuals, communities,            corporations or non-governmental organizations.”

When: Various types of private protected areas date back to hunting reserves used by large landowners in Mongolia, Europe, and elsewhere.  The first private “land trust” in the USA has operated continuously since 1891. One of the earliest references to private protected areas occurred more than 40 years ago at the first IUCN World Congress on National Parks.  Furthermore, private reserves have undergone dramatic expansion over recent years, most notably in 2003 with the creation of the Private Protected Area Action Plan at the 5th IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa.

Where:  Private Protected Areas continue to thrive and expand in developed and industrialized nations.  Southern Africa alone has hundreds, some reaching more than 100,000 hectares in size.  Latin American countries like Colombia and Brazil also contain hundreds of private reserves where community stewardship replaces insufficient natural resource management by governments.  Chile, the home of Pumalin, a 270,000 hectare private park (the world’s largest) is one of many reserves that benefit from numerous international conferences focusing on this growing phenomenon.  In the United States, The Nature Conservancy continues to build a network of 1,300 reserves protecting more than a half million hectares.

Why:  PPAs allow for conservation outside the realm of publicly funded conservation.  While government funded parks are more notable, they often fall short of conservation standards.  Poorly protected and managed, national parks often exist only on paper.  With so much of the world’s biodiversity lying outside these borders, private citizens are taking conservation into their own hands.  Three factors drive this explosion of private protected areas; first, government failure to protect nature, second, rising societal interest in biodiversity conservation, and third, the ever expanding world of ecotourism. 

How: PPAs serve many functions for their perspective owners, many involve ecotourism, hunting, or ecological research.  Jeffrey Langholz along with Wolf Krug developed 6 categories based on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) classifications for publicly owned parks.