Problems with current

protected areas
Several problems with the world's current protected areas mean that
the full diversity of the Earths habitats and species is not properly
protected.
These problems include:

Poor representation of habitats

many habitats are not well represented in the current network of protected areas. For
example, less than 4% of the ocean is protected. Freshwater habitats are also poorly
represented.

Lack of connectivity between protected areas

some species, especially large animals like cats and bears, need large areas of
natural habitat in order to feed and find mates. Few protected areas are large
enough to support more than a few individuals of these species, and many are
isolated from other areas of natural habitat. To address this, corridors must be put in
place between protected areas to allow species to move from one protected habitat
to another. The linking of protected areas to form networks or systems is very
important for the survival of many species; however, such connectivity remains rare.

Lack of funds
putting representative protected area networks in place and managing them
effectively requires money. However, few countries, including the richest, have
managed to define and establish ways to provide long-term, sustainable financing for
individual protected areas, let alone a network. This funding gap is particularly acute
in developing countries and for marine protected areas. There is a clear need to find
new and sustainable financial resources to supplement funding for existing protected
areas and to support the establishment of new protected areas.

Poor management
the declaration of a protected area is not an end result: a whole series of conditions
must be in place for protected areas to be effective. Effective management is

essential to ensure that nature is being conserved within a park's boundaries.

Management activities include monitoring the health of habitats, ensuring that the
rules of the protected area are respected, and working with local people to balance
nature protection with their needs and aspirations.

Human activities
closely linked with poor management are threats from widespread and either poorly
managed or illegal human activities occurring within protected areas in many parts of
the world. These include logging, poaching of protected animals, mining, and
encroachment by human settlements and agriculture. Human activities outside of
protected areas are also often a threat such as those leading to pollution, climate,
and the introduction of invasive species.

Arguments for protection

Protected areas are essential for safeguarding biodiversity. They also offer a
multitude of economic, social, and cultural benefits to people.
Protected areas are the cornerstone of national and international conservation
strategies, and indeed, most are currently established to safeguard biodiversity.
But protected areas also provide a number of direct and indirect benefits to people
that are becoming more widely appreciated and valued.

Contributing to human well-being and sustainable development

Key amongst these is their role in ensuring the continued supply of a huge range
of environmental goods and services that are vital for human well-being such as
the provision of food, freshwater, and medicine; climate regulation; and protection
from natural disasters, to name a few.
These goods and services are particularly important for the worlds poorest people,
who rely heavily on natural resources for their livelihoods, diet, and
health. Degradation of environmental services is a driver of poverty and social
conflict, and a significant barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) for eradicating poverty and hunger, improving health, and achieving
environmental sustainability.

Conversely, by maintaining environmental goods and services and providing

new livelihood opportunities, protected areas can help contribute towards poverty
reduction and sustainable development.
In addition, threats to biodiversity such as habitat loss, unsustainable use of
natural resources, inequity, and governance problems - also often contribute to
increasing poverty. Conservation efforts addressing these problems can also
enhance the livelihoods of the rural poor.

Providing cultural and spiritual benefits

Protected areas also provide recreational opportunities, as well as cultural and
spiritual benefits for people around the world.
For example, biodiversity is increasingly recognized as an important part of a
nations unique character or value, comparable with valuable cultural sites. Protected
areas like Yellowstone National Park in the US or the Masai Mara in Kenya, for
example, have the same resonance in a nations consciousness as, say, the Taj
Mahal or Notre Dame cathedral.
The protection of sacred and other spiritual sites is also important for many
traditional and vulnerable societies, including many indigenous peoples.

Future benefits?
By helping to ensure the continued existence of the wondrous array of life forms on
our planet, protected areas may bring future benefits that, while impossible to
foresee at the moment, could have profound implications for people around the
world.
Genetic diversity, for example, is already recognized as a valuable source of as yet
undiscovered medical compounds that may be useful to fight diseases such as
HIV/AIDS.
And biomimicry where scientists look to natures designs and processes to solve
human problems is emerging as a new source of innovative ideas and solutions.

 Arguments for
protection: biodiversity

The intrinsic value of species and ecosystems in their own right makes
biodiversity worthy of protection.
Life is what sets our planet apart but the wondrous variety of species that
share our home is rapidly disappearing.
Thanks to destructive human activities, the current rate of species extinction is
at least 100-1,000 times higher than the expected natural rate. This rate of
biodiversity loss is comparable with the great mass extinction events that have
previously occurred only five or six times in the Earths history.
Protected areas are essential tools to halt this biodiversity loss.
They act as refuges for species, genetic diversity, and ecological processes
that cannot survive in intensely managed landscapes and seascapes. They
also provide space for natural evolution and future ecological restoration.
Protected areas can also help buy time for habitats and species threatened
by global warming and climate change, while the world works out the only
long-term solution: reducing CO2 emissions.

Arguments for
protection:
environmental goods &
services

Natural habitats and ecosystems provide a huge range of environmental

goods and services that contribute enormously and are even essential to
human well-being. Protecting these areas is essential in order to achieve
sustainable development.

Environmental goods and services include:

climate regulation
nutrient and waste management
flood control
coastal protection
the provision of food, freshwater, fuel, medicines, building materials, fertile
soils, and breathable air.
Collectively, the value of these goods and services has been estimated at
US$33 trillion, higher than the entire world gross national product.
However, destructive human activities are seeing biodiversity lost and natural
ecosystems degraded at an alarming rate.
As a result, nearly two-thirds of the worlds environmental services are under
threat.
Around the world, this is contributing to reduced food security, reduced water
availability, reduced income, reduced protection from natural disasters, and reduced
human health.
The rural poor, who directly rely on ecosystem goods and services for their diet,
health, and livelihoods, are disproportionately affected.
The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that the degradation of
environmental services is a significant barrier to achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and that this impediment could grow significantly
worse over the next 50 years. It also found that the harmful effects of environmental
service degradation are often the principal drivers of poverty and social conflict.
By safeguarding biodiversity and natural habitats, protected areas have a key role to
play in ensuring the continued supply of essential environmental goods and
services. In this way, they can contribute towards poverty reduction and sustainable

development.
Despite this, development strategies, policies, and programmes often neglect
the importance of environmental protection for meeting long-term sustainable
development goals.

Arguments for
protection: livelihoods
Protection of species and natural areas can help maintain existing livelihoods,
as well as create new livelihood opportunities.
Hundreds of millions of people around the world rely on natural resources for their
livelihoods. For example, an estimated 250 million people in developing countries
directly depend on small-scale fisheries for food and income.
Environmental goods and services provided by natural habitats like clean
water, food, fibers, building materials, medicines, and energy - are also extremely
important for meeting the subsistence needs of the worlds poorest people. In India
alone, an estimated 50 million people are directly dependent on forests for their
subsistence.
Well-managed protected areas have a clear role to play in protecting the
species and ecosystems that support these livelihoods.
Protected areas can also sometimes bring alternative livelihood opportunities, for
example through sustainable tourism or conservation work.
This can be especially important to poor rural and coastal communities with minimal
options for formal employment. It can also be extremely cost effective. For example,
maintenance of Costa Ricas national parks costs about US$12 million each year; in
1991 these parks generated foreign exchange of more than US$330 million from
some 500,000 overseas visitors.

Arguments for
protection: culture
Natural habitats and biodiversity form a strong part of peoples culture and
values be that purely as sites for recreation or through a deeper cultural
identity.
Just about every faith system in the world, for example, has a link with nature and
the conservation of land and water.
Indeed, sacred areas are probably the oldest form of habitat protection on the planet,
and still form a large and largely unrecognized network of sanctuaries around the
world.
Biodiversity and natural landscapes are also increasingly recognized as an
important part of a nations unique character or value, comparable with valuable
cultural sites.
Protected areas have an important role to play in preserving these less
tangible, but nevertheless important, values.
This is especially the case for the many sacred natural areas and faith-based land
management systems currently under threat, due to cultural breakdown, pressures
on land and resources, and poor governance. Closely related to this, protection of
spiritual sites can sometimes be an effective way of also protecting a people, culture,
or ethnic group.
Conversely, sacred areas and other spiritual sites can contribute directly to global
conservation efforts because they are often themselves well-conserved, through
traditions that sometimes stretch back for thousands of years.
For example, patches of original lowland forest survive as islands in a sea of
agriculture and other land uses on Kenyas coast, due to their protection as sacred
Kaya forests by the Mijikenda ethnic groups. These sacred forests have high

biodiversity and harbour many endemic species. However, an erosion of traditional

cultural values and economic pressure for forest conversion has led to these sacred
forests becoming greatly reduced in size over the past 30-40 years. In 1992, a
number of Kaya forests were gazetted as National Monuments, providing state
protection to bolster the greatly weakened traditional systems

Implementing Climate Adaptation Strategies in the Worlds Most

Outstanding Natural Places
Climate change is affecting peoples livelihoods in more ways than one, and is
having a significant impact on biodiversity. We are already subjecting our biodiversity
to diverse threats, including from infrastructure development, pollution and
conversion of natural habitats. The best means of conserving areas of relatively
healthy ecosystems is through the creation and effective management of protected
areas. Already about 12% of our planet is under some form of protection. Protected
areas conserve not only our planets biodiversity but they also secure a steady and
regular supply of multiple ecosystem goods, such as medicinal plants or food, and
ecosystem services, such as soil stabilization and carbon sequestration, which are
of great value to people living in or around them. The ecosystem value of protected
areas has recently been estimated to be worth up to USD 5.2 trillion. In times of
stress, such as natural disasters, through the supply of these ecosystems goods and
services, protected areas will play an even more important role for poor rural people.
However, climate change will not spare protected areas. In order for them to
continue to meet the conservation objectives for which they were created, their
resilience will need to be strengthened so that they can adapt to climate change. In
most cases, particularly in sensitive ecosystems such as coastal, mountainous and
arid zones, this will mean that different planning and management measures will be
necessary. For example, restoration may be needed in some areas, in other areas
the boundary of a protected area may need to be redefined, in others the area under
protection may need to be greatly expanded to include different altitudes for
example, in some areas seasonal no go zones may be needed etc. Ultimately
protected areas that are more resilient to climate change can achieve their
conservation objectives while also helping communities living inside and around
them to adapt more effectively to the impacts of climate change.

A project funded by the European Union is developing a methodology that will help
stakeholders (in particular protected area managers, politicians and rural
communities) to identify and implement the measures necessary to build protected
areas resilience so that they can better adapt to climate change. The methodology
will be tested through its practical application in six protected areas in Colombia,
Madagascar and the Philippines: Gorgona and Sanquianga National Parks
(Colombia), Nosy Hara and Ambodivahibe (Madagsascar), and SinapaanCamudmud Marine Protected Area (MPA) and Liguid MPA in the Island Garden City
of Samal (IGACOS) (the Philippines).