Naturas

Naturas is a fictional international network of protected areas, research facilities, and indigenous and local communities designed to illustrate how a global conservation framework might operate. It is not a real organization but is often referenced in academic and policy discussions as a case study in governance, data sharing, and cross-border cooperation for biodiversity protection.

The concept emerged in theoretical and pedagogical contexts in the early 2000s to explore how diverse stakeholders could coordinate conservation objectives, monitor ecosystems, and balance ecological goals with social and economic needs.

Naturas is described as comprising national parks, wildlife reserves, marine protected areas, and community-managed landscapes. Its governance is imagined as a general assembly representing member regions, a rotating chair, and a small secretariat responsible for coordination, standard-setting, and program administration.

In the imagined framework, Naturas supports biodiversity assessments using standardized indicators, coordinates transboundary restoration projects, and publishes open data repositories. It runs training programs for park managers, develops ecotourism guidelines, and advances restoration corridors to connect fragments of habitat.

In literature, Naturas serves as a heuristic device to discuss governance challenges such as data sovereignty, funding sustainability, equitable benefit-sharing, and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge. Critics note the risk of conflating fictional models with real-world processes.