Protected Areas

1
Protected Areas
2
Protected Areas a long history
Sacred Groves, esp. of Africa, Asia Europe
Usually have religious significance for the
communities that protect them
Photo from Wikimedia Commons of torii gates at
Shimogamo Shrine, Japan associated sacred grove
3
Protected Areas a long history
Royal Hunting Preserves
E.g., Windsor Castles Great Park
Photo of Windsor Castle Great Park from
Wikimedia Commons
4
Protected Areas
A clearly defined geographical space, recognized,
dedicated and managed, through legal or other
effective means, to achieve the long-term
conservation of nature with associated ecosystem
services and cultural values
Not the only way to conserve biodiversity, but
can help avoid habitat degradation/destruction,
overexploitation, etc., especially in key areas
gt 108,000 around the world gt 12 land surface
area 0.8 oceans ( 5000 marine protected
areas)
Definition from IUCN
5
Protected Areas
Rocks ice syndrome (protected areas are often
a biased subset of habitats those that are not
desirable for other purposes) E.g., the worlds
largest natl. park is Northeast Greenland Natl.
Park essentially the Greenland icecap
Map from Wikimedia Commons
6
Protected Areas
Many formally protected national parks are paper
parks (i.e., established in name only w/o
enforcement) especially prevalent in
less-developed countries
Of an estimated 6 billion spent annually to
manage protected areas worldwide, lt 12... is
spent in less-developed countries (where,
ironically, most of the earths biodiversity
resides.
Quote from Wilcove (2008) No Way Home pg. 205
7
United Nations Educational, Scientific Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)
Specialized agency of the United Nations,
established in 1945
International Union for the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)
UNESCOs first Director General, Sir Julian
Huxley, helped establish this institution in
1948, to give UNESCO a more scientific base
Logos from respective Web sites
8
IUCN Categories of Protected Areas
Category I Nature reserve / wilderness area /
wildlife sanctuary mainly for scientific
research or wilderness protection
Category II National park mainly for
ecosystem protection recreation
Category III Natural monument conservation of
specific natural features
Category IV Habitat / species management area
Category V Protected landscape / seascape
Category VI Managed resource protected area
mainly for the sustainable use of natural
ecosystems
9
United Nations Conference on Environment
Development, a.k.a. Rio Earth Summit, 1992
Two major achievements of the Earth Summit
Kyoto Protocol
(adopted 1997, Kyoto, Japan)
Convention on Biological Diversity
(key objective to develop national strategies
for the conservation sustainable use of
biodiversity)
Logo from www.eoearth.org
10
UNESCO Programme on Man the Biosphere (MAB)
Biosphere Reserves
(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)
Torres del Paine National Park, Chile
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
11
UNESCO Programme on Man the Biosphere (MAB)
Biosphere Reserves
(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)
Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
12
UNESCO Programme on Man the Biosphere (MAB)
Biosphere Reserves
(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)
Denali National Park, AK, USA
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
13
Convention for the Protection of World Cultural
Natural Heritage UNESCO World Heritage Sites
(678 cultural, 174 natural 26 mixed, in 145
countries est. in 1972)
Pirin National Park, Bulgaria
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
14
Convention for the Protection of World Cultural
Natural Heritage UNESCO World Heritage Sites
(678 cultural, 174 natural 26 mixed, in 145
countries est. in 1972)
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
15
Convention for the Protection of World Cultural
Natural Heritage UNESCO World Heritage Sites
(678 cultural, 174 natural 26 mixed, in 145
countries est. in 1972)
Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
16
Convention on Wetlands of International
Importance (est. in Ramsar, Iran)
(1,801 sites since est. in 1971)
Kakadu National Park, Australia
Logo photo from Wikimedia Commons
17
Convention on Wetlands of International
Importance (est. in Ramsar, Iran)
(1,801 sites since est. in 1971)
Okavango Delta, Botswana
Logo photo from Wikimedia Commons
18
U.S. National Parks
Classification as of 2003 Number Acreage
National Battlefield, National Battlefield Park, National Military Park National Battlefield Site 24 64,738.87
National Historical Park, National Historic Site, International Historic Site 120 204,840.71
National Lakeshore 4 228,873.58
National Memorial 28 10,541.50
National Monument 73 2,277,010.75
National Park 58 51,961,285.92
National Parkway 4 176,344.29
National Preserve National Reserve 20 24,189,328.85
National Recreation Area 18 3,692,664.98
National River National Wild Scenic River Riverway 15 746,357.19
National Scenic Trail 3 237,995.55
National Seashore 10 595,078.55
Other Designations (White House, National Mall, etc.) 11 40,128.85
Totals 388 84,425,189.59
Table from Wikipedia
19
U.S. National Parks
First U. S. National Park ( first in the world)
Yellowstone, 1872
Photo of boardwalk along Grand Prismatic Spring
from Wikimedia Commons
20
U.S. National Parks
First U. S. National Monument Devils Tower,
1906
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
21
U.S. Military Installations
E.g., Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
22
U.S. National Forests
E.g., Kisatchie National Forest
Map from www.fs.fed.us
23
Louisianas Government - Departments
Agriculture Forestry
Culture, Recreation Tourism
Environmental Quality
Natural Resources
Wildlife Fisheries
Logos of LA Departments engaged in protected area
activities from respective departmental Web sites
24
Louisiana State Forests
E.g., Alexander State Forest Indian Creek
Recreation Area
Photo from www.ldaf.state.la.us
25
Louisiana State Wildlife Management Areas
E.g., Lake Ramsey sic Savannah WMA
K. Harms photo of 1-m2 plot containing gt 30
species of flowering plants
26
Privately Protected Areas
E.g., NGOs such as TNC Lake Ramsay sic
Preserve
K. Harms photo of 1-m2 plot containing gt 30
species of flowering plants TNC The Nature
Conservancy
27
Privately Protected Areas
E.g., Private organizations such as the Girl
Scouts
K. Harms photo of Whispering Pines Girl Scout
Camp, St. Tammany Parish, LA logo from
www.girlscouts.org
28
Privately Protected Areas
Ted Turner (b. 1938) Media mogul philanthropist
Among the worlds largest land owners (by
acreage) owns gt 2 million acres in U.S. S.
America
Owns largest privately owned contiguous tract of
land in U.S. Vermejo Park Ranch, N.M. (920 mi2
2,400 km2)
Especially focused on restoring Western U.S.
Argentine wildlands
Image from July 4, 1977 Sports Illustrated from
http//sportsillustrated.cnn.com
29
Privately Protected Areas
Doug Tompkins (b. 1943) co-founder of The North
Face ESPRIT Kristine Tompkins (b. 1950)
former CEO of Patagonia
Among the worlds largest land owners (by
acreage) own gt 2 million acres in U.S. S.
America
Especially focused on conservation in Chilean
wildlands (e.g., Pumalín Park)
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
30
Privately Protected Areas
E.g., Conservation easements
Legally enforceable land preservation agreement
between a landowner and government agency
(municipality, county, state, federal) or
qualified land protection organization, for
conservation
Restricts real estate development, commercial and
industrial uses, and certain other activities, to
a mutually agreed upon level
Remains the private property of the landowner
Binding on all future owners of the property
Landowner may receive significant tax advantages
for having donated or sold the conservation
easement
31
Species Loss Occurs Even in Protected Areas
Wildlife in protected areas face a range of
threats that can be envisioned as extinction
filters (colored disks) passing through an
ecological community. Species most vulnerable to
a given threat, or to the combined or synergistic
impacts of multiple threats, face local
extinction.
Fig. from J. S. Brashares (2010) Filtering
Wildlife from Science
32
Species Loss Occurs Even in Protected Areas
the natural post-establishment loss of
mammalian species in 14 western North American
national parks is consistent with predictions
from Island Biogeography Theory and all but
the largest western North American national parks
are too small to retain an intact mammalian
fauna.
Fig. from W. D. Newmark (1987) Nature