The first phase of the BIOPAMA programme is approved by the EU- ACP partnership and launched by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Bahamas protected area agencies reviewed the application of IUCN Management Categories to the Bahamas System of protected areas with BIOPAMA technical assistance in a series of 3 workshops in 2014.

The BIOPAMA observatory for the Pacific is formally established and hosted by SPREP, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.

The first version of the Reference Information System goes live: rris.biopama.org. This is an open source, free tool for protected area data management.

The BIOPAMA Observatory for Central Africa is launched and hosted by COMIFAC OFAC.

The Caribbean Observatory is formally established and hosted by UWI- CERMES, the University of the West Indies, Centre for Resources Management and Environmental Studies, Barbados.

BIOPAMA makes major contributions at the IUCN World Parks Congress 2014, Sydney, Australia.

The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) was updated with a comprehensive set of information on the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries’ protected areas, with the major contribution of the BIOPAMA programme.

BIOPAMA supported the relaunch of two major Pacific initiatives: the Pacific Islands protected areas working group, in close collaboration with SPREP, and the Pacific Islands Community Co-adaptive Management Course (PICCC), an annual three-module course proven to be an effective capacity development initiative for Pacific Island conservation practitioners.

The most comprehensive resource published so far on capacity development has been launched. BIOPAMA is one of the partners who made the book “Protected Areas Governance and Management” possible, contributing to the professional development of protected area professionals. With its 28 chapters addressing a large variety of topics linked to protected areas governance and management, the book is addressed to students, policy makers, practitioners and any interested readers.

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The agreement with the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat for hosting the observatory for this region has been implemented. Shortly after, a meeting with the representatives of the EAC countries and other stakeholders was organized to present them the BIOPAMA resources and tools for improving protected areas management.

A network of 27 coaches from 12 West and Central African countries was established. They qualified to serve as coaches of the BIOPAMA observatory for Central Africa after completing the training on COMIT (Coach Observatory Mission Information Toolkit COMIT).

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Two years after the launch of www.biopama.org, the website hits 20,000 viewers.

The BIOPAMA capacity development approaches in Southern Africa are adopted by other initiatives: Southern African Wildlife College hosts first paid-for negotiation training in the region, based on BIOPAMA training and materials developed with the Sustainability Challenge Foundation (SCF).

“The Pacific Islands Region Strategy and Action Plan for Capacity Development in Protected and Other Conserved Areas 2015-2020” is tailored to specifically address the distinctive issues, needs and opportunities that occur in the Pacific region. It was developed in the framework of the Pacific Islands Roundtable – Protected Areas Working Group and it was set to guide the Pacific capacity development actions in the next 5 years. 

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The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016 profiled BIOPAMA to an audience of 10,000 world environmental leaders and practitioners through 30 events, 4 pavilions, with the support of 11 communications materials and 13 staff and with results in online interactions of more than 20,000. 

By the end of the first phase, BIOPAMA has held 120 capacity development events involving more than 2000 protected area professionals from the related sectors, from national administrations to local communities, academia and private sector.

As BIOPAMA resumes with a second phase, under the 11th European Development Fund, the programme adopts a revisited visual identity.

An international BIOPAMA relaunch highlights the European Union’s (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States’ €60 million investment in this programme over the next six years – making it one of the largest EU biodiversity programmes. Read more (https://biopama.org/node/203)

The revisited website of the BIOPAMA programme is launched. The website developed during the first phase of the programme is still accessible at old.biopama.org

IUCN Oceania Regional Office and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) have renewed their partnership in the framework of the BIOPAMA programme to assist Pacific Island Countries to improve protected area information and management for better decisions. This agreement represents a continuation of the collaboration initiated in the first phase of BIOPAMA and which launched the Pacific Islands Protected Areas Portal (PIPAP). Read more (https://biopama.org/node/238)

The IUCN Regional Office for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean and the University of the West Indies (UWI) have renewed a five-year collaboration supporting Caribbean countries to best manage and utilise their natural resources resources. In the first phase of the BIOPAMA programme, this collaboration launched the Caribbean Protected Areas Gateway, providing tools and services for improved protected area management and decisions in the 15 Caribbean-ACP countries. Read more (https://biopama.org/node/240)

Committed to boost the capacity of protected area actors, BIOPAMA supported for the second time the Training of Trainers Course on Marine Protected Area Management organized by the Caribbean Marine Protected Area Network and Forum (CaMPAM). Held in Barbados from 16 to 26 April 2018, this training provided capacity development to twenty participants from thirteen Caribbean countries.  Read more (https://biopama.org/node/241)

The BIOPAMA programme is relaunch in Southern Africa. 70 stakeholders representing governments, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations convened in Johannesburg to set the priorities for the programme’s implementation in this sub-region. Read more (https://biopama.org/node/243)