APPRECIATING that protected areas serve an important role in protecting global biodiversity, mitigating carbon emissions and increasing resilience to climate change;

AWARE that wildlife resources also serve as important components of ecosystems, providing services that benefit humanity in the form of pollination, seed dissemination, disease control, pest control, food production, water purification and waste decomposition;

ACKNOWLEDGING that plastic products account for the majority of waste in protected areas, are often inappropriately disposed of on-site, and that discarded plastics take up to a thousand years to decompose;

RECOGNISING that inappropriate disposal of plastics has a significant impact on the environment and may affect wildlife;

FURTHER RECOGNISING the need for responsible management of plastics waste and scrap that prevents its leakage into the environment; and

NOTING that there are alternatives to single-use plastic products available for bringing drinks and other items into protected areas, and that ‘pack-it-out’ policies encourage responsible management of plastics brought into protected areas;