Fw: World's Parks at Risk From Chronic Underfunding

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ECOTERRA Intl.

Saturday, September 13, 2003 9:49 PM

World's Parks at Risk From Chronic Underfunding

 

 

Content:

* World's Parks at Risk From Chronic Underfunding

* Leakey remark causes uproar at SA meeting

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Comment:

So? - the states, the para-statals and the fatcat-orgs are

underfunded ? - and what one believes is provided for the local

communities, their supporters and their wildlands since 150 years ?

Let's turn the tide: PEOPLES IN WILDLANDS NEED FRIENDS

and opportunities - not middlemen or profiteurs - in order to be able

to continue their stewardship for the nature of their homelands!

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World's Parks at Risk From Chronic Underfunding

 

DURBAN, South Africa, September 12, 2003 (ENS) - The

world's parks and protected areas are suffering from a $2.5

billion annual budget shortfall, researchers said today at the

World Parks Congress. The bulk of the shortfall is in developing

countries, where the greatest wealth of biodiversity exists, and is

leading to catastrophic results in many of the world's protected

areas.

 

Current global funding for the world's parks and protected areas

is $7 billion annually, according to an international panel of

economists, scientists, governments and protected area managers.

 

But less than $1 billion of this total is spent each year in the

developing world, the panel reports, and this chronic under

funding could have stark consequences for the world's

biodiversity.

 

The analysis was released today at the IUCN World Parks

Congress by Birdlife International, the University of Cambridge,

Conservation International and its Center for Applied Biodiversity

Science (CABS).

 

" This massive budget shortfall means that too often, protected

areas have ineffective and insufficient management, resulting in the

progressive degradation of resources these areas were

established to protect, " said John Hanks, director of Southern

Africa Transfrontier Conservation Areas for Conservation

International. " The acceleration of human encroachment is

transforming vast natural areas, and species are still teetering on

the brink of extinction - in the very places designed to provide

them safe refuge. "

 

There is plenty of wilderness left in the world, but protection of

these areas is very limited.

 

The panel discovered tens of thousands of protected areas

worldwide suffer from a chronic lack of funding, resulting in

a shortage of staff, ranger stations, communications equipment,

vehicles and other basic infrastructure.

 

The lack of funding is causing direct and perhaps irreversible

impacts on the very species the international community says

it is keen to protect.

 

The report notes that in West Africa funding of many parks is

so poor that areas once rich with elephants, hippos and

monkeys are now empty.

 

In Latin America, the panel finds, protected areas have been

cleared for agriculture, and in Asia, endangered species - such

as tigers, monkeys and crocodiles - are poached for illegal sale.

 

These findings come on the heels of a report by CABS and the

IUCN-World Conservation Union that some 700 endangered

species have no protection over any part of their ranges, with

many more at risk because the protected areas they depend

upon as habitat are too small to be effective.

 

Expanding and maintaining the global protected area network

to protect the most threatened - and currently unprotected -

plant and animal species would cost some $23 billion a year

over the next decade, the researchers said.

 

The figure may seem high, but there is no question the

developed world can easily absorb such costs, the panel said.

" The developed world easily has the capacity to help the

developing world close this shortfall, " said Aaron Bruner,

manager of conservation economics for CABS.

 

The sum of $23 billion, Bruner says, is " significantly less

money than Americans spend on soft drinks alone each year. "

 

" For a fraction of that - just $1.5 billion a year - we could take

the vital step of making sure that basic management of all

existing protected areas in developing countries is well funded, "

Bruner said.

 

And parks ultimately pay for themselves through widespread

benefits to society, the panel noted, in particular for poor

communities.

 

They point to a 2002 study published in the journal " Science "

that found the long term economic benefit derived from healthy

ecosystems greatly outweighed the costs of protecting them.

 

The world is not spending enough to save endangered species,

conservationists say.

 

That study showed that developing remaining wild habitats

jeopardizes ecosystem services such as flood and storm

protection, watershed protection, and carbon sequestration.

It found the collective value of those services equaled some

$33 trillion each year.

 

" In weighing the costs and benefits of a global network of

protected areas, it is critical to take into account the enormous

benefits that undeveloped habitats provide to society, " said

Andrew Balmford, senior lecturer at the University of Cambridge

and lead author of the " Science " study. " These areas protect our

natural heritage, provide numerous local benefits, and generate a

wide range of globally valuable ecosystem services. "

 

The panel called for a range of funding sources, including

governments, foundations, non governmental organizations and

private individuals to make a greater commitment to provide the

increase in funds needed to support effective park management.

 

The 5th World Parks Congress, which has attracted some 2,500

delegates from more than 170 countries, continues through

September 17.

 

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2003. .

 

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Leakey remark causes uproar at SA meeting

 

Saturday, September 13, 2003

By ZIPPORAH MUSAU in DURBAN, S. Africa

 

Tempers flared among delegates attending the fifth World Park's

Congress in Durban, South Africa, yesterday when renowned

conservationist Dr Richard Leakey 'rubbished' the concept of

categorising indigenous people from the rest of the local

communities, saying it amounted to politicising conservation.

 

In his presentation, Dr Leakey said national economic and security

interests should not be undermined by traditional claims of minority

groups.

 

This did not go down well with groups of indigenous peoples

attending the congress, and whose role has been recognised

by the World's Conservation Union.

 

The indigenous peoples, led by the Maasais of Kenya and

Tanzania, swiftly issued a statement denouncing Dr Leakey's

statement, saying he was an enemy of the people.

 

They said the community had suffered during Dr Leakey's

tenure at the Kenya Wildlife Service, as he regarded them

as enemies rather than co-owners. This, they said, led to the

escalation of human-wildlife conflict.

 

" Dr Leakey represents a clique of aging conservationists

whose idea of protecting parks with the use of the gun is

responsible for the ongoing human-wildlife conflict in Kenya.

We believe that old colonial conservation mentality has no

place in the 21st century, " said one of the indigenous peoples.

 

Mr John Letai from Kenya said indigenous people play a

major role in conservation as most of the Protected Areas

fall in their land.

 

" Conservation has succeeded so far due to the goodwill of

the local communities. It should be a collective responsibility

and indigenous people should be involved in the management

of these protected areas because you can't talk of parks

without people, " said Mr Letai.

 

Mr Letai wondered why the Government of Kenya allowed

Dr Leakey to continue issuing " embarrassing " statements to the

country during international conferences.

 

" Last year during the World Summit on Sustainable Development

in Johannesburg, Dr Leakey said that elephants in Kenya were

being killed with full knowledge of the Government, which was

doing nothing to stop the menace, " said Mr Letai.

 

He was flanked by Mr Joseph Simel, also from Kenya, and Ms

Peninah Kisipan from Tanzania.

 

So far, no Kenyan minister is here to represent the Government in

the World Parks Congress despite the fact that tourism, which

depends on these national parks, is a major foreign income

earner for the country.

 

In exonerating himself, Dr Leakey who spoke to the Nation [newspaper]

later, refused to be drawn into further controversy with the indigenous

people, saying he was attending the congress on an individual capacity.

 

http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/Today/News/News1309200313.html

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