Protected Forests in Jeopardy, World Bank-WWF Study Finds
12/12/99
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Title: Protected forests in jeopardy, study finds
Source: Environmental News Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 12, 1999
Byline: Margot Higgins
Most protected wildlife areas in developing countries are in serious
jeopardy, according to a study released recently by the World Bank
and Worldwide Fund for Nature.
The report covers approximately half of the world's remaining
forested wilderness and is expected to result in new management
policies and better protection.
To address the global forest crisis, The World Bank and the Worldwide
Fund for Nature launched a partnership in April 1998 to promote
forest conservation and better practices in forest management.
The study was done to identify the types and origins of the threats
that are out there, the trends that are occurring in protected areas,
the status of protected areas and the options for addressing the
problems.
"Most people in the world would assume that a protected area is
protected, but the study shows that unfortunately in many cases those
protected areas remain under threat," said Nigel Dudly, co-author of
the report.
The "paper parks" research project reviewed findings from previous
surveys of threats to protected areas and supplemented this with an
additional survey that was passed out to experts in 10 key forested
countries.
The report reveals that less than a quarter of the declared national
parks, wildlife refuges and other areas set aside for preservation in
the 10 countries - China, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Tanzania, Gabon,
Mexico, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil and Peru - are adequately managed
and many areas had no management at all.
And if that isn't bad enough, only one percent of these areas is
permanently secure from the danger of being destroyed from human
settlement, agriculture, logging, hunting, mining, pollution, war or
tourism.
"The problem is not lack of laws, it's lack of implementation" said
Dudley. For example, Dudley points out in the African nation Gabon,
the Montes Dou Dou 7,412-acre protected area has no management plan
at all, and the area is subject to illegal hunting and logging.
In response to the study findings, the alliance is launching a plan
to improve the management and protection of 125 million acres of
existing but highly threatened protected area by the year 2005. Plans
also include expanding the amount of area that is preserved.
Currently, the alliance has projects in 22 countries throughout the
world. Most of the financial backing for the target project will come
from the $400 million Global Environment Facility managed by the
World Bank. The fund has already committed $35 million for Brazil to
establish more than 60 million acres of protected area.