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Conservation is expanding beyond places formally designated as national parks or other protected areas. The main vehicle is the Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measure (OECM): a geographically defined place outside a protected-area system that is governed and managed in ways that deliver sustained, positive biodiversity outcomes, even when conservation is not its primary purpose.
A review published in Annual Review of Environment and Resources on 15 October 2026 finds that OECMs could make area-based conservation more representative and locally grounded. It also warns that recognition alone proves nothing. Rights, decision-making authority, long-term support, ecological evidence and the ability to adapt are what determine whether an OECM actually conserves nature.
What are OECMs?
OECMs are places that are not counted as conventional protected areas but are managed so biodiversity benefits persist over the long term. Their main purpose might be cultural, economic, social or related to a working landscape, yet management must still maintain important ecological values.
Possible examples include sacred grounds, pastoral lands, orchards, surf breaks, underground systems and thermal vents. Indigenous Peoples and local communities, farmers, private landowners, governments or shared bodies may govern them. The category is deliberately broad because many places that sustain species and ecosystems do not fit the national-park model.
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Presence of wildlife, a culturally important site or a scenic landscape is not enough. A site qualifies only when its governance and management produce positive, sustained biodiversity outcomes and those outcomes can reasonably endure.
Why OECMs matter for the 30 by 30 goal
Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for at least 30% of terrestrial and inland-water areas, and at least 30% of coastal and marine areas, to be effectively conserved and managed by 2030. The target allows both protected areas and OECMs, provided they are ecologically representative, well connected and equitably governed, and integrated into wider landscapes, seascapes and the ocean.
This creates a route to recognize conservation that already occurs on customary lands, community territories, farms, private estates and working waters. It can also fill gaps in national networks where conventional parks are politically, socially or geographically impractical.
However, the target measures more than a map total. Area coverage is an input or policy indicator; ecological effectiveness is an outcome. Adding an area to a database does not show that habitats are protected, species are recovering or management will continue.
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Protected areas and OECMs: the practical difference
| Question | Protected area | OECM |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Conservation is the stated primary purpose of designation. | Another purpose may lead, but management must still deliver sustained biodiversity benefits. |
| Governance | May be government, private, shared, Indigenous or local-community governance, depending on the site. | May use the same governance types, with meaningful participation by affected people required in practice. |
| Evidence required | Designation is accompanied by management expectations; effectiveness still requires monitoring. | Recognition depends on evidence that governance and management are producing durable biodiversity outcomes. |
| Role in ecological networks | Should be representative and connected as part of a wider system. | Should add areas important for biodiversity and improve representativeness or connectivity, rather than merely enlarge a map total. |
| Rights and livelihoods | Must respect rights and address costs and benefits, including customary tenure where relevant. | Recognition must respect decision-making authority, sustainable use and fair distribution of costs and benefits for local stewards. |
| Climate resilience | Plans need to maintain conservation outcomes as conditions change. | Management must be able to adapt when habitats and species distributions move. |
Who can govern an OECM?
OECMs are not a way to transfer control away from the people who care for a place. The review stresses that support and rights are central, especially where Indigenous Peoples and local communities hold customary tenure or have long-standing relationships with land and water.
Meaningful governance involves more than consultation after decisions have been made. People affected by recognition should be able to participate in decisions, define acceptable use, monitor results and share in benefits. National agencies also need to clarify who is responsible for enforcement, reporting, finance and conflict resolution.
Working landscapes illustrate the balance. A pastoral area or orchard may continue producing food while maintaining habitat, but recognition should not impose new restrictions without addressing livelihood costs. Sustainable use can be compatible with an OECM when it is part of management that sustains biodiversity.
What must be shown before a site is counted?
Governments and other authorities can use a staged test rather than treating OECM status as a label. A credible assessment should establish:
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- A defined area: boundaries must be geographically clear enough for management and reporting.
- Legitimate governance: the governing authority, tenure arrangements and decision-making process must be identified, including the role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
- Effective management: rules, practices and resources must address the pressures affecting biodiversity, not simply describe aspirations.
- Positive biodiversity outcomes: there must be ecological evidence or a defensible monitoring plan showing that important habitats, species or ecological processes are being sustained.
- Long-term durability: legal, customary or institutional arrangements should make continued management plausible rather than dependent on a short project or individual landholder.
- Fairness and accountability: rights, livelihoods, costs, benefits and routes for resolving disputes must be addressed.
- Adaptation: managers need authority and resources to change practices when climate, species ranges or other conditions change.
A place that meets only the first condition is an area on a map, not an effective OECM.
How can we tell whether an OECM is working?
Convention on Biological Diversity monitoring guidance tracks protected-area and OECM coverage separately. It can disaggregate results by terrestrial, inland-water and marine realms; areas important for biodiversity; governance type; and levels of management effectiveness.
That framework points to the evidence a site should collect: changes in habitat condition, populations of focal species, threats, ecological connectivity and compliance with management rules. Technologies for monitoring ecosystems and species can help, but satellite or sensor data cannot replace local knowledge, governance records or evidence that management decisions are being implemented.
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Why climate change makes durability essential
Species and habitats can shift beyond the boundaries that made sense when a site was designated. An OECM that protects one location rigidly may lose its biodiversity value if water regimes, temperatures or species ranges change.
Climate-resilient management may require restoring links between sites, changing grazing or harvest rules, protecting refuges, or revising boundaries and objectives. Those changes are possible only when the governing institutions have authority, funding and a monitoring system that can detect decline early.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the 2026 review found
The review, “Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in Global Area-Based Conservation,” was led by a team from the University of Exeter, Jersey International Centre for Advanced Studies, the University of Kent, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Gibraltar. Its DOI is 10.1146/annurev-environ-121124-060839.
Lead author Catherine Wensink, Executive Director of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum and a PhD researcher at the University of Exeter and Jersey International Centre for Advanced Studies, said countries have already begun putting OECMs into practice while the global debate continues. She described the research as a way to trace the idea from international policy to the practical realities of a small, biodiverse Caribbean island.
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Co-author Julia E. Fa, a professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Gibraltar, said OECMs can recognize conservation rooted in people’s everyday relationships with land and water. She emphasized that success depends on support for responsible people, respect for their rights, evidence that biodiversity is sustained and management that can adapt.
The review’s examples show why a single model is unlikely to work. A sacred ground, a pastoral landscape, an orchard, a surf break, an underground system and a thermal vent may require entirely different rules, indicators and institutions. What unites them is not appearance or ownership, but effective, durable conservation outcomes.
What this means for national conservation policy
Countries pursuing 30 by 30 can use OECMs to make conservation networks more complete, but they should avoid treating the category as a shortcut to a headline percentage. A sound national process should:
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- map areas important for biodiversity that are outside protected-area systems;
- invite Indigenous, community, private and sectoral stewards to identify places already delivering conservation benefits;
- assess governance, rights, management and ecological evidence before recognition;
- fund monitoring, enforcement and technical support after recognition;
- report OECM coverage separately from protected-area coverage and publish effectiveness information; and
- review sites periodically so recognition can be strengthened, adapted or withdrawn when outcomes are no longer being delivered.
An OECM is therefore best understood as a conservation commitment with evidence and accountability, not as a second name for every valuable piece of land or water outside a park.
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