Although 12% of the earth surface is now officially protected, studies released at this week’s 5th World Parks Congress in the Durban, South Africa show that many of the areas are too small and have too few safeguards to be safe for inhabitants. And 700 endangered animal species have no protection at all. “Without an immediate and strategic expansion of the protected area system, scientists expect a major wave of extinctions within the next few decades,” said the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) who conducted the study.
The emphasis at the conference has been to create parks that cross political borders to enlarge protected areas and provide greater protection from poachers and other illegal activity. 2,500 government officials, indigenous leaders, businessmen, and conservationists from 170 countries are attending to find ways to safeguard natural areas while benefiting indigenous peoples.
In Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon joined to create a 10,000 square kilometers park that reaches across the country’s boundaries.
And protection for the precious heart of the Brazilian Amazon was announced on September 10. Jorge Viana, governor of Brazil’s Acre state, announced the creation of a new 2,600 square mile state park, larger than the state of Delaware.
Chandless State Park is strategically located on the Brazil/ Peru border to discourage illegal logging in the southwest Amazon by reducing cross-border traffic. Governor Viana also set aside three state forests in Acre for responsibly managed production of forest products to benefit local residents economically.
Together with Chandless State Park, which is reserved for nature protection, these new areas will block widespread forest clearing in Brazil’s “deforestation arc” across the southern Amazon, Guillermo Castilleja, vice president of Latin America and Caribbean for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said.
Chandless will receive funding, scientific support, and management assistance from WWF’s Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) program, which aims to create a system of parks and sustainable natural resource management reserves encompassing some 193,000 square miles.
A partnership between the government of Brazil, WWF, The World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, and the German Development Cooperation Bank, the program is a 10 year effort to bring 10% of the Brazilian Amazon under strict protection and establish a $260 million trust fund to finance the effective management of protected areas in perpetuity.
In Brazil’s Amazonas state, the government recently established six reserves extending over 16,250 square miles, doubling the size of the state’s protected area system.
At some 2.5 million acres in size, the Piagau-Purus Sustainable Development Reserve supports several local communities that are now stewards of their own resources. “These new reserves represent a giant step towards saving the very heart of the Amazon,” said Dr. Steven Sanderson, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society and delegate at the World Parks Congress.
“Implementing sustainable development models that work is the key to saving wildlife and people.” said Dr. Andrew Taber, director of WCS’s Latin America Program. “Making the residents of Piagau-Purus masters of their own fate encapsulates a workable blend of science and pragmatism.”
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Excerpted from Environment News Service
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