AlVelAl is located in Southern Spain, roughly in between the cities of Granada and Murcia. The AlVelAl- territory covers parts of the autonomous communities of Andalusia and Murcia, which each have several provinces and comarcas -the local denomination for districts. The name AlVelAl relates to the first letters of the comarcas where the initiative started: Altiplano de Granada, Los Vélez and Alto ALmanzora. More recently the comarcas of Guadix and Noroeste de Murcia were added to the landscape…

Lizards’ Lane is a narrow, roughly 22ha strip of land to be developed and managed as an ecological heathland corridor to enhance the viability of local populations of amphibians and reptiles. It is situated in the municipality of Soest, the Netherlands. The corridor consists of mixed broadleaved-coniferous forest and heathland, with 6 different landowners. Currently, the land is managed by the owners, each of them having different management objectives. The remnant heathlands bordering the…

Oogenlust BV is a florist that views nature as its most important source of inspiration. To this end we have developed Domein Oogenlust. It  is an area in which we give nature the chance to shape itself. We manage the nature in a way that stimulates indigenous flora and allows birds, butterfly’s and many other species to use Domein Oogenlust as their home. We have developed shrub, planted hedges and created meadows rich of herbs. We manage the flora by grazing, mowing and the removal of…

The Jama-Coaque Reserve is owned and managed by the non-profit organization Third Millennium Alliance/ Grupo Ecológico Jama-Coaque, in partnership with the local community of Camarones. Third Millennium Alliance is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization in the United States and functions under the name Grupo Ecológico Jama-Coaque as a non-profit foundation in Ecuador. The mission of Third Millennium Alliance/ Grupo Ecológico Jama-Coaque is to preserve the last remnants of Ecuador’s coastal…

Embaloh peat swamp and peatland ecoregion The Nanga Lauk Village Forest – Rimbak Pakai Pengidup/Forest for Life – supports a huge diversity of plant and animal species, many of which are threatened with extinction. The area is within the Heart of Borneo region, identified as a priority for Biodiversity Conservation because of the exceptional diversity of species it supports, and the high levels of threat they face from deforestation and forest degradation. The VCA forms part of the Embaloh…

WWF Indo-Malayan ecoregion – Bornean Lowland Rainforest (scientific code IM0102) The Punan Long Adiu Customary Territory – Nugum Lunang, Lelum Tano’/Sustainable Forest, Safe Earth – is mostly covered with dense tropical rainforest that has been used by the Punan Adiu Customary Community for generations. Now settled in Punan Long Adiu Village, the Punan Adiu Community still use many of the sustainable practices their ancestors developed, hunting and gathering most of the food, fuel, building…

Sinyala Village Forest Area (VFA) is located in central Malawi in Lilongwe district. The VFA land is covered with indigenous trees and is under the protection of community people from Sinyala village led by the Traditional Authority (T/A) Masumbankhunda by the act of Government on Community Forestry in Malawi Forest Act 1997. The VFA was established by Chief Sinyala who visionally realised that with time the area will be depleted of wildlife. Sinyala VFA covers approximately 27 hectares of…

Tetepare is the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific and one of the last remaining unlogged islands in the Solomon Islands. Untouched since the mid-1800s, Tetepare harbors 12,000 ha of pristine rainforest and fringing reefs with some of the highest coral and reef fish diversity on earth. Although scientists continue to discover new species on the island, it plays host to at least 73 bird species, 24 reptile, 4 frog, and 13 mammal species, including several rare bat species, three…

The area is located in Southern Belgium in the Condroz Region characterized by smooth hills (altitude 150 m in the valleys, 350 m maximum on the top of the hills) covered with cultivated lands on the plateaux, meadows and mostly broad-leaved woods (roughly 1/3 each) on the slopes. The underground is composed of sandstone on the summits and of limestone in the valleys. The property of Wagnée is a typical piece of land of the Condroz Region: it covers 60 ha of cultivated land, meadows and woods…

The site Espai Natura Coll de Can Maçana – Montserrat was bought by Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera (formerly Fundació Territori I Paisatge) in 2004 to preserve its natural value and landscape as well as to facilitate the main entrances to the Natural Park of la Muntanya de Montserrat. It harbours a rich flora and fauna typical for the Mediterranean and with several rare species. The spectacular landscape attracts a large number of visitors every year, and to reduce threats and disturbance,…

When I became a father, I wanted to give my son the same chances I had when I was a child. I knew humankind had to face the problems it had created and change its way of living, producing and consuming. We need to, to survive as a species. Because glaciers all over the world are melting, biodiversity is rapidly decreasing, and we are using much more than the Earth can provide us with. That’s the start of Ecovillage Boekel. Our goal is simple: We want to prove humans can live sustainably in…

Inside the 129,100 ha UNESCO Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve in State Brandenburg, NE Germany, two areas (together 700 ha) have been set aside for the conservation of the natural landscape, with the aim to restore several ecological functions, mainly associated with water. At the same, these reserves work towards a closer integration with the surrounding farmland by stimulating landowners to introduce more nature-friendly management practices and setting aside land for connecting the two…

The site is located at: 43°43.072’N and 7°1.165’E. It is 600 hectares in size, situated within the local authority area of Tourrettes-sur-Loup, approximately 30 km east of the city of Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes district. It falls within the Préalpes de Grasse Natura 2000 site and has an altitude ranging from 424 m to 1, 248 m at its peak, known as the ‘Pic des Courmettes’. The site harbours an exceptional biodiversity and the high altitudinal range gives rise to a variety of inhabitants. Much…

ON HOLD - Unfortunately, because of the security situation in the region and because the area’s management plans have still to be approved by the Council of Ministers, there were no substantive developments on the ground in the 2016. Once operations get underway, the area manager intends to begin reporting on its conservation actions through the VCA Registry. Located in eastern Mozambique, Coutada 5 is the largest and most diverse of Mozambique’s hunting concessions. The 687, 000 ha Coutada is…

The Tullstorp Stream restoration project in southern Sweden is a most promising initiative to improve the living conditions for fauna and flora in intensively cultivated farmland at the same time as reducing the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. Already after the first years, positive impacts have been registered for bird-associated wetlands whilst the living conditions for fish and bottom fauna is more or less unchanged. The nutrient leakage to sea has significantly improved for phosphorus…

Knepp Castle Estate comprises 1,400-hectares (3,500 acres) in the Low Weald in West Sussex in the southeast of England. The estate originated in the Middle Ages as one of King John’s hunting parks. It had been intensively farmed since the Second World War, with increasing chemical inputs since the 1970s. Its traditional small hedged fields and heavy clay, however, made it particularly unsuited to modern intensive farming practices. In 2001, the present owner, Sir Charles Burrell (Charlie),…

The Green Circle Bee-landscape covers an area of 20,000 ha and is situated in and between the cities of Leiden, Zoetermeer and Alphen a/d Rijn within the province of Zuid-Holland (the Netherlands). It aims at the return of bees, bumblebees, other pollinators and butterflies to the landscape through the creation of a regional, cohesive network of ecologically diverse habitats. This is achieved by developing a social network of dedicated actors, helping them to create a common vision and…

The proposed VCA is the Kesatuan Pemangkuan Hutan Lindung (Protected Forest Management Unit — KPHL) Model Kapuas. This area located in Block E and Block A of the Ex-Mega Rice Project (EMRP) area. About 75.000 ha of this peat land is found in the north of the site (part of Block E of the EMRP) and contains mostly intact but logged-over forest that is a prime habitat for almost 3,000 Orangutan. Currently the north part of KPHL Model Kapuas is a fundamentally healthy ecosystem and the forest has…

The establishment of the Carpathia Wilderness Reserve at the heart of the Romanian Carpathian Mountains is a unique conservation initiative in Europe. With support of a consortium of private philanthropists organised in the Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC), around 20,000 ha of forests and alpine grasslands have been purchased since 2009. The ultimate aim is secure 50,000 ha of mainly forests and integrating this area into the larger protected areas landscape of Romania. In parallel to…

ON HOLD - Unfortunately, because of the situation in the country, Yemen LNG had to stop its operations in the middle of 2015. This includes all of its activities at the Balhaf facility. Thus management of the Balhaf Headland Marine Area VCA is currently on hold. Once operations resume, the company intends to revitalise the conservation management of the Balhaf Headland Marine Area and to begin reporting on its conservation performance through the VCA Registry. The Balhaf Cape Headland is the…