The IUCN World Parks Congress 2014 was described as “a landmark global forum on protected areas”, and was held from 12 to 19 November 2014 at the Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia. The theme of the Congress was “Parks, people, planet: inspiring solutions”, with the goal to present, discuss and create original approaches for conservation and development, helping to address the gap in the conservation and sustainable development agenda.

IPSI members took part in and organized a number of stream sessions and side events at the Congress in order to highlight approaches to the revitalization and sustainable management of production landscapes both inside and surrounding protected areas. Please see this announcement for a list of IPSI-related events at the Congress. Some of events that the IPSI Secretariat were directly involved in are also shown in the table below:

Date	Event	Time	Venue
13 November 2014	Side event: “Inspiring tools for enhancing sustainability”, organized by UNU-IAS and including the Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS), an IPSI Collaborative Activity, as one of the tools.	17:30 – 19:00	Stream 7, Hall 2, North Pod
14 November 2014	Stream 7 session: “Nature-Culture Linkages: Stewardship of Biocultural Landscapes for Biodiversity and People”, featuring a variety of presentations related to the Satoyama Initiative.	13:30 – 15:00	Amphitheatre
14 November 2014	Side event: “The Satoyama Concept: Theory and Practice”, organized by JICA, and featuring presentations by IPSI Secretariat staff among others.	17:30 – 19:00	Stream 5, Hall 4, North Pod
17 November 2014	Side event: “Production landscapes and protected areas: approaches of the Satoyama Initiative”, organized by UNU-IAS and the IPSI Secretariat.	17:30 – 19:00	Stream 6, Hub, Room 2

IPSI and the Satoyama Initiative both received a great deal of attention at the World Parks Congress, with all of the above events attracting a larger-than-expected audience. The IPSI Secretariat was greatly encouraged to see that production activities within and around protected areas seem to be gaining greater acceptance as a vital piece of protected-areas management, and we look forward to working with many other World Parks Congress participants in the future.