Care in partnership with TNC, IIED and UNEP-WCMS has over the last year developed the 'Social Assessment of Protected Areas' initiative, which has the overall objective to identify, develop and evaluate a range of methodologies and tools for assessing the social impacts of protected areas. This enables conservation policy and practice to better adhere to the globally accepted principle that protected areas should strive to contribute to povety reduction at the local level.

The objective of this study is to conduct a desk review of studies of the social impacts of protected areas that will provied the foundation for development of indicators and a best practice rapid assessment methodology