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Private PES schemes do not require a specific legal framework beyond basic contract law, but they are usually limited to local water problems. However, scaling their positive results up through a nested approach may require a specific policy and legal framework. PES trading schemes require a specific legal framework as they are rather complex and usually need to be established at the regional or national scale. An appropriate legislative framework which regulates public PES schemes has the potential to stimulate the development of trustworthy markets and to ensure good governance.

This introduction provides an overview and commentary on the papers in a special issue of PARKS, which is devoted to the impact and implications of COVID-19 on the world’s protected and conserved areas. It describes how 11 peerreviewed papers and 14 essays have brought together the knowledge and findings of numerous experts from all parts of the world, supported by several wide-ranging surveys. The resulting global synthesis of experience answers some key questions: why did the pandemic occur? what has it meant for protected and conserved areas, and the people that depend on them? what were the underlying reasons for the disaster we now face? and how can we avoid this happening again? We applaud the international effort to combat the disease but suggest that humanity urgently needs to devote as much effort to addressing the root causes of the pandemic – our fractured relationship to nature. Unless we repair it, humanity will face consequences even worse than this pandemic.

Important Plant Areas (IPAs) are internationally significant sites for plant diversity – or more simply the best sites for plants. Identified at national level, using internationally standardised criteria, they provide a framework for implementing target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Report on the invasive species in the Caribbean, by IUCN, documenting the environmental crises and how to manage impacts on the natural island biodiversity and carrying out successful eradication.

Re-introduction is one tool for conserving great apes and their natural habitats. These guidelines adapt other IUCN documents to pertain specifically to the re-introduction of great apes. The adaptation is justified by alarming declines in great ape populations and the destruction of their habitats, and because great apes are biologically and cognitively specialized and advanced, and generate particular animal welfare concerns.The re-introduction process should begin by the appointment of a multidisciplinary specialist advisory team. The project manager should write a detailed proposal stating the project’s background, objectives, methodology, schedule and budget addressing each of the subsequent steps listed below. The proposal should include quantifiable measures by which the project’s success can be assessed. The proposal should be reviewed by the advisory team and by external reviewers.

The nature of the plant breeding process calling for a broad range of plants genetic resources as inputs into any one successful product. Indeed a new plant variety can often be the product of generations of breeding farmers and breeders, which may stretch across many countries. First they are important as an immediate resource i.e for the particular characteristics they may provide, in terms of pest resistance drought tolerance, plant architecture taste or colour.