Protected area: Difference between revisions
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Protected areas have direct human benefits. People – both those living in or near protected areas and others from further away – gain from the opportunities for recreation and renewal available in national parks and wilderness areas, from the genetic potential of wild species and the environmental services provided by natural ecosystems, such as provision of water. Many protected areas are also essential for vulnerable human societies and conserve places of value such as sacred natural sites. Although many protected areas are set up by governments, others are increasingly established by local communities, indigenous peoples, environmental charities, private individuals, companies and others. .<ref>[[IUCN Protected Area Management Categories]]</ref> |
Protected areas have direct human benefits. People – both those living in or near protected areas and others from further away – gain from the opportunities for recreation and renewal available in national parks and wilderness areas, from the genetic potential of wild species and the environmental services provided by natural ecosystems, such as provision of water. Many protected areas are also essential for vulnerable human societies and conserve places of value such as sacred natural sites. Although many protected areas are set up by governments, others are increasingly established by local communities, indigenous peoples, environmental charities, private individuals, companies and others. .<ref>[[IUCN Protected Area Management Categories]]</ref> |
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There are currently over 120,000 protected areas covering 12.2 per cent of the Earth’s land area, 5.9 per cent of the territorial seas and only 0.5 per cent of the extraterritorial seas (territorial seas extend from the shore to 12 nautical miles offshore; extraterritorial seas are those marine areas beyond the territorial seas; they extend from 12 nautical miles offshore and include the exclusive economic zones and high seas).<ref>[http://www.unep-wcmc.org/protected_areas/pdf/stateOfTheWorld'sProtectedAreasLow.pdf UNEP-WCMC (2008). State of the world’s protected areas: an annual review of global conservation progress. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.]</ref> |
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==IUCN Definition== |
==IUCN Definition== |
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Revision as of 15:22, 19 November 2010
Protected areas describe a wide array of land and water designations, of which some of the best known are national park, nature reserve, wilderness area, wildlife management area and landscape protected area but can also include such approaches as community conserved areas. More importantly, the term embraces a wide range of different management approaches, from highly protected sites where few if any people are allowed to enter, through parks where the emphasis is on conservation but visitors are welcome, to much less restrictive approaches where conservation is integrated into the traditional human lifestyles or even takes place alongside limited sustainable resource extraction.[1] The term protected area includes Marine Protected Areas, which refers to protected areas whose boundaries include some area of ocean.
Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation. They are the cornerstones of virtually all national and international conservation strategies. They are area set aside to maintain functioning natural ecosystems, to act as refuges for species and to maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in most intensely managed landscapes and seascapes. Protected areas act as benchmarks against which we understand human interactions with the natural world. Today they are often the only hope we have of stopping many threatened or endemic species from becoming extinct. .[2] Protected areas have direct human benefits. People – both those living in or near protected areas and others from further away – gain from the opportunities for recreation and renewal available in national parks and wilderness areas, from the genetic potential of wild species and the environmental services provided by natural ecosystems, such as provision of water. Many protected areas are also essential for vulnerable human societies and conserve places of value such as sacred natural sites. Although many protected areas are set up by governments, others are increasingly established by local communities, indigenous peoples, environmental charities, private individuals, companies and others. .[3]
There are currently over 120,000 protected areas covering 12.2 per cent of the Earth’s land area, 5.9 per cent of the territorial seas and only 0.5 per cent of the extraterritorial seas (territorial seas extend from the shore to 12 nautical miles offshore; extraterritorial seas are those marine areas beyond the territorial seas; they extend from 12 nautical miles offshore and include the exclusive economic zones and high seas).[4]
IUCN Definition
One definition, but not the only definition of "protected area", is provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A protected area, when using the IUCN definition, is:
"A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values."[5]
— quote
History
International commitments to the development of networks of protected areas date from 1972, when the Stockholm Declaration from the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment endorsed the protection of representative examples of all major ecosystem types as a fundamental requirement of national conservation programs. Since then, the protection of representative ecosystems has become a core principle of conservation biology, supported by key United Nations resolutions - including the World Charter for Nature 1982, the Rio Declaration at the Earth Summit (1992), and the Johannesburg Declaration 2002.
Globally, national programs for the protection of representative ecosystems have progressed with respect to terrestrial environments, with less progress in marine and freshwater biomes.
Criticism
Some countries, such as China, Madagascar, Namibia and Venezuela, place a protection category over lands, but provide little enforcement,[citation needed] such that the areas are not substantively protected from development or misuse.
Protected areas often involve the exclusion of resources users from the protected area. As such, they have been criticized for the displacement of local population.[6] Much of the new protected areas are in developing countries which makes the local population vulnerable.
In some places, wildlife is protected by armed guards, killing 'poachers' looking for subsistence.[7]
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See also
- Community Conservation Areas
- Conservation refugee
- Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia
- List of largest protected areas in the world
- Marine Protected Area
- World Commission on Protected Areas
- World Database on Protected Areas
- Zakaznik (type of protected area in Russia)
References
- ^ IUCN Protected Area Management Categories
- ^ IUCN Protected Area Management Categories
- ^ IUCN Protected Area Management Categories
- ^ UNEP-WCMC (2008). State of the world’s protected areas: an annual review of global conservation progress. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.
- ^ IUCN (2010) Protected Areas - what are they, why have them? Accessed online 15/10/2010 http://www.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/pa/pa_what/
- ^ Brockington 2002. Fortress Conservation: The Preservation of the Mkomazi Game Reserve, Tanzania
- ^ Arnaud Zajtman, The battle for DR Congo's wildlife, BBC News, Friday, 17 September 2004