Box 7. What constitutes a special place?

There is no universally agreed upon definition of special places. Existing definitions combine scientific and political dimensions through different features, but they often do not prioritize the features that take precedence. In general, stakeholders deem a forest “special” if it includes one or more of the following characteristics:

Biological, ecological and landscape features

• Species richness: number of species within a given area
• Species endemism: number of species found exclusively in that location
• Rarity: species and/or ecosystems that are naturally rare
• Representation: a site that represents all of the different ecosystems in the area of concern
• Significant or outstanding ecological or evolutionary processes, such as key breeding areas, migration routes, unique species assemblages, and so on
• Special species or taxa: presence of an umbrella, keystone, indicator, or flagship species. Site is habitat of a taxa of interest; for instance, wide-ranging species of waterfowl

Conservation features

• Threatened species: species that have been identified as threatened or endangered
• Species decline: species whose populations have undergone significant decline in recent years
• Habitat loss: areas that have lost a significant percentage of their primary habitat or vegetation
• Fragmentation: areas that have lost connectivity and have been fragmented into smaller pieces
• Large intact areas: areas within a certain minimum size with no or minimal human influence
• Level of threat: areas facing high or low pressure from human populations or development
• Places considered to have rare and exceptional scenic and aesthetic features

Ecosystem services

• Ability to supply basic and/or critical services such as watershed protection, erosion control, and fire/flood control among others

Cultural, livelihood, historical and spiritual features

• High value to the people who live within or around the site (e.g., for reasons of religion, history, cultural identity, or dependency for livelihoods); these include religious, historical and archaeological sites
• Critical significance to the traditional cultural identity of a local community
• Critical to maintaining local peoples’ livelihoods

The most critical and controversial issues around identifying special places have been:

• What process is used to define, identify and map special places?
• What, and how fair and effective, is the process to make and implement the decision?
• Who bears the cost?
• What is the effectiveness of existing special places protection?
• The criteria, or, how special is special enough?

Governmental action to identify special places (through zoning and land-use planning processes) provides due process for those affected and may provide compensation or spread the costs equitably. If government actions are perceived as insufficient, however, this can give way to individual and private actions.

Sources: IUCN, 2006; UNEP/WCMC’s Tree Conservation Information Service; Gordon et al., 2005.