Ambitious Plan to Protect Biodiversity in the Americas
9/16/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: ENVIRONMENT-AMERICAS: Ambitious Plan to Protect Biodiversity
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 16, 1999
Byline: Nefer Munoz
SAN JOSE, Sep 16 (IPS) - Costa Rican biologist Mario Boza is
spearheading an ambitious conservation project aimed at unifying
environmental protection strategy across the Americas before the
start of the next millennium.
''America is the region with the greatest biodiversity in the
world, even more than Asia and Africa, and for this reason we must
seek a protection plan whose benefits would be enjoyed by future
generations,'' Boza told IPS.
He plans to establish an ''Ecological Corridor of the
Americas'' that would stretch from the forests of Alaska to Tierra
del Fuego and protect the majority of the planet's biodiversity.
Boza, chosen by Time magazine and the US-based cable news
channel CNN as one of the ''noted personalities of the 20th
century,'' is promoting this long-term project as a member of the
international Wildlife Conservation Society.
The 57-year-old biologist has been one of the driving forces
in the region that have pushed for National Park protected areas
and has held conservation posts in both government agencies and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The continental region of the Americas shelters 65 percent of
the planet's biodiversity.
''It has been proven scientifically that one of the greatest
problems for the survival of these species is the fragmentation of
protected areas, so we must unite them in corridors,'' Boza said.
The idea consists of creating an ecological corridor that runs
along the continent's Atlantic coast and is crossed by other
protected corridors. It will make use of those already existing in
the United States and Canada, as well as the recently devised Meso-
American Biological Corridor, which traverses southern Mexico and
Central America.
''This is a very feasible project because it joins the efforts
many organisations and countries have made to isolate and protect
natural areas and to conserve their ecosystems,'' said Mario
Rojas, of the Costa Rican Ministry of Energy and the Environment.
Rojas, who is jointly working on the project with Boza, said
that its initial stage has consisted of collecting data and
drawing up a basic map of the protected areas and corridors of the
continent.
The next step will be to convene, within no more than one year,
an international conference of experts on environmental issues,
who will elaborate a working plan and enumerate the conservation
priorities in the regions of the Americas.
The creation of an Ecological Corridor of the Americas will
require new protected areas and the widening and consolidation of
those now in existence for them to be linked within national
frontiers and also connected with other countries.
''We have communicated the idea already to the nations of
Central America, as well as Argentina, Peru, Chile and Mexico, and
there has been a tremendous response. We all agree that is
necessary to concentrate our efforts,'' Rojas said.
The interest in creating environmentally protected corridors in
the Americas dates back to 1967. A decade later, scientific
articles and reports started to be published on the issues of
designing nature reserves and the need to link up protected areas.
In 1990, projects along these lines were initiated in the US
state of Florida. They consisted of a network of ''green belts''
connecting federal and state protected areas.
In 1991, the ''Yellowstone to Yukon'' plan was launched in
North America, involving conservation, restoration and the
creation of corridors between the United States and Canada.
In addition, since 1996, Boza has worked on the establishment
of the Meso-American Biological Corridor, which has received an
initial grant of 13 million dollars from international
organisations.
In other parts of America, countries like Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Mexico and Colombia already are planning networks of
protected areas and corridors.
''We know that it is impossible to protect 100 percent of the
American continent's biodiversity, but it would be a great triumph
for the world if we manage to conserve 75 percent of these
species. We are working to do what is possible,'' Boza said.
The Ecological Corridor of the Americas would bring significant
benefits to every country on the continent, as it would assure the
survival and restoration of unprotected ecosystems like wetlands,
river basins and local and migratory wildlife species, he
declared.
In addition, this strategy of environmental conservation would
help to prevent natural disasters, as well as maintaining sources
of clean, potable water.
One of the main objectives of the Ecological Corridor would be
to promote the concept of ''bringing back the woods,'' using
incentives to keep forests from being felled and turned into
cropland.
It also would attempt to ensure that at least 20 percent of the
region was set aside as national park areas and at least 30
percent was reforested and properly managed, with the end view
that both activities would become profitable and, in the long run,
would not require state funding. (END/IPS/nms/ag/en/ks/mk/99)