In 1992, world leaders signed an international treaty to
sustain the diversity of life on Earth. This 'Convention on
Biological Diversity' (CBD) resulted in agreements to manage and
protect wildlife by designating certain places 'protected
areas'.
There are currently around 16 million square kilometres of
protected areas, classified by the International Union on the
Conservation of Nature in to six
different levels of protection.
Around 12% of all land is protected by law, in over 200,000
protected areas. However, most of the world's protected land and
biodiversity is in the tropics - usually in less economically
developed countries. Such countries have to focus on economic
growth at the expense of nature conservation. But, with some
careful planning and management, economic development can progress
without environmental destruction. There is strong evidence
indicating that once countries have the resources they are keen to
protect their natural areas.
Given that the CBD requires an obligation by (almost)
all nations to protect more land and sea, the existing meagre
resources will be spread over even more and larger sites.
Underfunding of protected areas leaves them vulnerable to illegal
activities such as logging, hunting and fishing. However, even
legal interventions in some areas such as agriculture, mining,
petroleum prospection, and commercial fishing are often poorly
known. Moreover, where local communities are not sufficiently
compensated for the loss of lands to conservation, and alternative
livelihoods are not provided, ecosystems will continue to be
plundered even if nominally 'protected'.
More practical methods of protecting land from human
destruction are needed. At the very least, sustainable conservation
requires:
- Freely accessible information on park boundaries,
infrastructure and access;
- Freely accessible information on threats from human activity
including monitoring and early warning of dramatic forest cover
change;
- Adequate funding for park infrastructure, wardens, monitoring
and environmental education;
- The provision of sustainable livelihoods for human populations
living in and around these parks;
- Recognition of the economic value of protected areas to us as
individuals and societies.
Therefore, although legal protection provides the top-down
guidelines, in order for these guidelines to be respected on the
ground, environmental charities such as Healthy Planet and partner
organisations around the world need to lend their assistance.
We pride ourselves in funding efficient projects with
multiple benefits in vulnerable places which strive to tackle
threats at their root causes.