Emerging Trends in Conservation Funding and Financing of Protected Areas

Dear Colleagues,

The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, developed during the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15), has proposed 23 targets to be achieved by 2030. These include the effective conservation and management of at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas (including seas and coastlines), which are designated Protected Areas (PAs).

This “30 by 30” commitment to expand the monitoring and management of PAs will place extra pressure on funding bodies already experiencing crises in terms of funds available and their effective dispersal.

This Special Issue, therefore, welcomes submissions that will help to expand our collective and conventional understanding of the financial mechanisms set up to support PAs (e.g., government subsidies, international aids, voluntary donation, fee collection systems, taxes and park revenues, etc.)

Applicable funding and financing strategies are not limited to conventional sources and conditions that contribute to or hinder the funding and financing of PAs; they may also include emerging ones (e.g., crowdfunding, green bonds, conservation trust funds, biodiversity offsets, credit and trading systems, etc.) that function on a number of levels from macro-economic policy to individual willingness to pay on the part of (potential) PA visitors.

Prof. Dr. Thomas E. Jones
Dr. Minh Hoang Nguyen
Dr. Kiyotatsu Yamamoto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Conservation is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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.

• protected areas
• biodiversity conservation
• government subsidies
• voluntary donation
• fee collection systems
• crowdfunding
• green bonds
• biodiversity offsets