The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) will hold the VI World Parks Congress (WPC) on 12-19 November 2014 in Sydney, Australia. This congress is a landmark global protected areas meeting held every ten years. In 1962, the series of IUCN WPC have started influenced and tracked perspectives on the role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. The theme for the forthcoming WPC is Parks, People and Planet: Inspiring Solutions.

This year, the SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCA ) program will take an active part in participating at the congress and promote the program that has the following vision: “SADC, a model of community centered, regionally integrated and sustainably managed network of world class transfrontier conservation areas”. The Southern African region has a unique opportunity to demonstrate that the TFCA concept is an inspiring solution to conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable development and cares for protected areas and people, putting the people at the center. Given these facts, the SADC region will contribute to the World Parks Congress through (1) various SADC TFCA presentations in the congress streams, (2) SADC TFCA side events and, (3) an exhibition booth that will be set up during the period of the congress. Those three initiatives will aim to share the experiences and achievements of TFCAs in the region as well as the future TFCA plan with the rest of the world.