Protected areas are a vital part of any long-term strategy to maintain global biodiversity and ecosystems. Nonetheless, the problems with protected areas as defined, practiced and espoused by Western nations are many and well-known. Too often relatively benign uses of habitats by indigenous peoples are not viewed as part of what is to be protected. Traditional uses can, if skillfully designed and implemented, continue in a protected area. And obviously, way too frequently, protections are in name only. Most protected areas are anything but, as illegal activities and "exemptions" to their preserved status proliferate.
All too often local needs are confused with industrial greed - and protected areas are opened to precisely the types of development their status should preclude. In particular, oil and mining threaten virtually every protected area in the world. What is the use of "protection" if economic use always outweighs ecological necessity? The western lead economic growth machine is hell bent to drill, mine and log in every natural habitat on the Planet - releasing every last bit of carbon into the atmosphere as possible - before exploring alternative economic arrangements. Forests.org has been in the forefront of unveiling industrial threats to officially protected areas, most recently in Ecuador's ultradiverse Yasuní National Park which is threatened by oil development < http://forests.org/action/ecuador/ >.
Clearly the path to global forest sustainability is at least two-fold. Protected areas must be respected as such for the long-term, and against any other suggested uses. And because protected areas are clearly too few to alone maintain global ecological sustainability, restoration and conservation management of all existing forests, and where they traditionally occurred, is so very important. Humanity must pursue with a sense of urgency strict protection of remaining large natural habitats; while working to conserve what remains, and restore what has been lost.
Following are the first two official press releases from the Organization for Tropical Biology and Conservation, the world's largest scientific organization dedicated to the study and conservation of tropical ecosystems, which deal with the threat to protected tropical rainforests by oil and mining development. It is so very important that what science teaches us about the ecological nature of being is actively presented to a wider audience. If scientists will not lead in the effort to sustain the Earth, who will? You may wish to join and support this important initiative at www.atbio.org .
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: RAINFOREST SCIENTISTS SAY OIL ROAD THREATENS CRITICAL AMAZONIAN PARK
Source: Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (www.atbio.org)
Date: January 4, 2005
For immediate distribution (4 January 2005)
Ecuador?s famed Yasuní National Park will be seriously degraded if a major new road is constructed to allow oil drilling inside the park, says a leading scientific organization.
Yasuní Park, the largest nature reserve in Ecuador, sustains some of the most biologically diverse forests on the planet, according to scientists from the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, the world?s largest scientific organization dedicated to the study and protection of tropical ecosystems.
?Yasuní is renowned as one of the world?s most important forest ecosystems,? said Heraldo Vasconcelos of the University of Uberlândia in Brazil. ?It sustains an extraordinary diversity of plants, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and bats, and is home to several endangered species, including the giant otter and Amazonian manatee.?
This week the ATBC passed a formal resolution urging the Ecuadorian Government and the Brazilian oil corporation Petrobras to forgo construction of a 54 kilometer (33.5 mile)-long road that would penetrate deep into the park.
?The problem isn?t just the road construction,? said William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, who is President-Elect of the ATBC. ?In the Amazonian frontier, roads act as magnets for loggers, slash-and-burn farmers, and commercial hunters, who use the roads to gain access to forests and wildlife.?
?It?s like opening Pandora?s Box,? said Laurance. ?Once the roads go in, it?s nearly impossible for the government to stop the colonists and hunters. Even if outsiders are somehow prevented from invading the park, local populations will quickly migrate to the roads and start clearing and burning the forest.?
?Fortunately, there may be viable alternatives to the road,? said José Fragoso of the University of Hawaii. ?Elsewhere in Ecuador and in Peru, roadless methods have been used to access oil and natural-gas deposits. This involves clearing a very narrow strip of forest in order to bury the oil pipeline, and then letting the forest regenerate above it.?
?Another potential alternative is directional drilling,? said Lauren Chapman from McGill University in Canada. ?With current technologies, oil companies can drill laterally for considerable distances, allowing them to access the oil deposits without driving a major new road into the park.?
Although more expensive than road construction, the scientists said that roadless oil-extraction methods and lateral drilling should be considered very carefully before allowing road construction in Yasuní Park. ?A big road like that proposed would utterly degrade the wilderness character of the park,? said Vasconcelos.
In 1989, Yasuní National Park was formally designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, in response to an official request by the Government of Ecuador to the United Nations Environmental, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (www.atbio.org), an organization of professional scientists and biologists, was founded in 1963 and has over 1400 members from 65 countries worldwide.
For further information and photographs, contact:
Dr William Laurance
ATBC President-Elect
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Apartado 2072, Balboa, Panama
Phone: 507-212-8252 and 507-314-9206
Email: LauranceW@tivoli.si.edu
Dr José Fragoso
ATBC Councilor
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Botany Department
Honolulu, HI 96822-2232, USA
Phone: (1) 808-956-5950
Email: fragoso@hawaii.edu
ITEM #2
Title: SCIENTISTS RAISE ALARM OVER ILLEGAL MINING IN TROPICAL PARKS
Source: Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (www.atbio.org)
Date: January 4, 2005
For Immediate Distribution (4 January 2005)
A leading scientific organization said today that illegal gold mining is posing a severe threat to some of the world?s most important tropical parks and indigenous reserves.
Tens of thousands of small-scale gold miners are flooding into tropical parks and reserves, where they degrade streams and rivers, contaminate waterways with toxic mercury, poach wildlife, clear forests, and threaten indigenous peoples, according to members of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, which recently passed a formal resolution decrying the problem.
?The situation has reached crisis proportions in parts of South America, particularly French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, and Brazil,? said Pierre-Michel Forget, a tropical ecologist from the French National Museum of Natural History. ?In many parks the situation is completely out of control.?
?The parks in northern Amazonia and the Guianas are some of the most important in the world,? said José Fragoso from the University of Hawaii. ?You?d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else on the planet with more species and more complex ecosystems.?
The scientists said that the parks also provide critical homes for indigenous peoples and flagships for growing tourism industries. The miners sometimes have violent conflicts with local Amerindian communities, and the muddy ponds they create while mining promote the spread of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
?In a region suffering such rapid forest destruction, these parks and indigenous reserves will be critical in the future for protecting biodiversity,? said biologist William Laurance from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. ?These are the last refuges?we can?t just let them be overrun and severely degraded.?
A key problem, the scientists say, is a lack of park guards and inadequate law enforcement in many developing countries in northern South America. ?In most parks there?s just no one there to stop the miners,? said Fragoso.
?A critical step is to increase funding?hopefully with international support?for basic park staff and infrastructure,? said David Hammond, a long-term researcher in the Guianas. ?Sales of mercury should also be strictly regulated in these countries, as mercury pollution is a very serious side effect of illegal gold mining.?
The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (www.atbio.org) is the world?s largest scientific organization devoted to the study of tropical ecosystems. Founded in 1963, the ATBC has over 1400 members from 65 countries worldwide.
For further information and photographs, contact:
Dr Pierre-Michel Forget
ATBC Councilor
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Paris, France
Phone: 33 (0)1-60-47-92-46
Email: pmf@mnhn.fr
Dr David Hammond
NWFS Consulting
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Phone: (1) 503-690-8084
Email: dhammond@nwfs.biz
Dr José Fragoso
ATBC Councilor
University of Hawaii-Manoa
Botany Department
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Phone: (1) 808-956-5950
Email: fragoso@hawaii.edu
Dr William Laurance
ATBC President-Elect
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Balboa, Panama
Phone: 507-212-8252 and 507-314-9206
Email: LauranceW@tivoli.si.edu
