Global Forces Threaten World's Parks

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, August 19, 2003 (ENS) - The amount of land protected in parks and conservation areas has doubled since 1992 and now covers some 12 percent of the Earth's land area. This is great news for conservationists as they prepare for the World Parks Congress in South Africa next month, but many are increasingly concerned by the growing threats to these special places from global forces, such as climate change, growing population and invasive species.

"Many of these protected areas are the last strongholds of nature, and now global changes driven by humans are battering their doors," said Dr. Kenton Miller, vice president for conservation of the World Resources Institute (WRI).

In the past, managers of parks and protected areas spent much of their time with traditional problems as regulatory confusion, problems of land tenure, and lack of financing.

Now, Miller says, their efforts are typically reactive - responding to the crises of the moment with little thought to long term concerns that may threaten their very existence.

Increased torrential rains and more extreme, less predictable weather are expected results of climate change. (Photo by C. Errath courtesy Food and Agriculture Organization)

"We must find ways to adapt to these changes to ensure the long term sustainability of our parks and protected areas," said Miller, who serves as chair of IUCN-The World Conservation Union's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

WRI issued its concerns about global forces on the world's protected areas ahead of the Fifth World Parks Congress, which is organized by the IUCN and the WCPA. The organization is under no illusions that these issues are daunting, but says it is vital that conservationists begin to seriously discuss them.

The congress, held once every ten years, will meet in Durban, South Africa, from September 8-17.

Some 2,500 conservation experts from more than 170 countries are expected to attend.

There is no question the world has come a long way since the creation of the first national park - Yellowstone - in 1872. There are now 102,101 protected areas covering 18.8 million square kilometers - an area larger than Canada, the United States, and Germany combined.

Although protected areas were first established for recreation and wildlife conservation, many have now emerged into places of high social and economic value.

Attendees at the World Parks Congress will explore ways to encourage greater protection of freshwater and marine preserves. (Photo courtesy United Nations Environment Program)

They also protect cultural monuments and sites of high spiritual value to indigenous peoples.

Threats to protected areas from global forces are "coming right behind us and can easily overwhelm the problems of the past," said John Waugh, acting director of the U.S. office of IUCN-The World Conservation Union. "Protected areas and parks are at the heart of the ecosystems we need to sustain life on earth."

The Durban Congress is meeting under the theme of "Benefits Beyond Boundaries" - a testament to the recognition that protected areas can provide environmental, economic and political benefits to societies worldwide.

The congress will examine the challenges of transboundary parks - such as the Great Limpopo Transfrontier, which stretches 35,000 square miles across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Achieving the balance between the needs of local communities and protection of natural ecosystems is in particular a challenge in some areas of Africa, where people have in the past been dislocated without compensation to make way for parks and protected areas.

"The setting in Africa will orient us to consider how to address peoples' needs and reduce suffering so that we can gain greater community support for protected areas and a true underpinning of conservation with sustainable development," said Jordan's Queen Noor, a patron of the Fifth World Parks Congress and honorary president of the conservation group Birdlife International.

Balancing the ecological needs of protected areas and the species within them with the needs of local communities is no easy task. (Photo by Martin Harvey courtesy IUCN-The World Conservation Union )

Other items on the agenda in include the desire to make the world's system of protective areas more representative of terrestrial, freshwater and marine preserves. Only 1.5 percent of the world's lake systems are protected.

Biodiversity is a subject certain to be raised during most dicussions at the congress - more than 11,000 species are known to be under threat of extinction, according to the IUCN.

"Some of the world's rarest species are dependent on protected areas," said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. "As threats are increasing to almost every ecosystem, the critical resources humanity has sought to protect in these areas are at risk."

WRI's draft document on global challenges facing the world's parks and protected areas can be found here.