Note: this resource is also available in Spanish.

Assessing a PA system’s financial sustainability is widely recognized as a key component of effective PA management. The Programme of Work of the Convention on Biological Diversity acknowledges the importance of financial sustainability by including specific recommended actions for countries under Goal 3.4.

UNDP has developed this scorecard to assist project teams and governments track their progress to make PA systems more financially sustainable.

The purpose of this scorecard is to assist governments, donors and NGOs to investigate and record significant aspects of a PA financing system – its accounts and its underlying structural foundations – to show both its current health and status and to indicate if the system is holistically moving over the long-term towards an improved financial situation. The scorecard is designed for national systems of PAs but could be used by sub-national eg state, regional or municipal or networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

The scorecard has three sections:

• Part I – Overall financial status of the protected areas system. This includes basic protected area information and a financial analysis of the national protected area system.
• Part II – Assessing elements of the financing system.
• Part III – Scoring.