Protected Areas

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

Protected Areas – a long history

Royal Hunting Preserves

Photo of Windsor Castle & Great Park from Wikimedia Commons

E.g., Windsor Castle’s Great Park

Definition from IUCN

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 helpavoid habitat degradation/destruction, overexploitation,

etc., especially in key areas

> 108,000 around the world> 12% land surface area

~ 0.8% oceans (~ 5000 marine protected areas)

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 world’s largest nat’l. park is Northeast Greenland Nat’l. Park –

essentially the Greenland icecap

Map from Wikimedia Commons

Quote from Wilcove (2008) “No Way Home” – pg. 205

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, < 12%... is spent in less-developed countries (where, ironically,

most of the earth’s biodiversity resides.”

United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Logos from respective Web sites

International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)

Specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945

UNESCO’s first Director General, Sir Julian Huxley, helped establish this institution in 1948, to give UNESCO a more scientific base

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 ecosystemprotection & 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

(key objective = to develop national strategies for the conservation & sustainable use of biodiversity)

Logo from www.eoearth.org

Kyoto Protocol

Convention on Biological Diversity

(adopted 1997, Kyoto, Japan)

United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, a.k.a. Rio Earth Summit, 1992

Two major achievements of the Earth Summit:

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

UNESCO Programme on Man & the Biosphere (MAB) – Biosphere Reserves

(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

UNESCO Programme on Man & the Biosphere (MAB) – Biosphere Reserves

(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Denali National Park, AK, USA

UNESCO Programme on Man & the Biosphere (MAB) – Biosphere Reserves

(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Pirin National Park, Bulgaria

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)

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia

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)

Photo from Wikimedia Commons Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

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)

Logo & photo from Wikimedia Commons Kakadu National Park, Australia

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (est. in Ramsar, Iran)

(1,801 sites since est. in 1971)

Logo & photo from Wikimedia Commons Okavango Delta, Botswana

Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (est. in Ramsar, Iran)

(1,801 sites since est. in 1971)

Table from Wikipedia

Classification as of 2003 Number AcreageNational 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 4 228,873.58National Memorial 28 10,541.50National Monument 73 2,277,010.75National Park 58 51,961,285.92National Parkway 4 176,344.29National Preserve & National Reserve 20 24,189,328.85National Recreation Area 18 3,692,664.98National River & National Wild & Scenic River & Riverway 15 746,357.19

National Scenic Trail 3 237,995.55National Seashore 10 595,078.55Other Designations (White House, National Mall, etc.) 11 40,128.85Totals 388 84,425,189.59

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

U.S. National Parks

First U. S. National Monument = Devils Tower, 1906

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

U.S. National Parks

U.S. Military Installations

E.g., Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

E.g., Kisatchie National Forest

Map from www.fs.fed.us

U.S. National Forests

Logos of LA Departments engaged in protected area activities from respective departmental Web sites

Agriculture & Forestry

Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Environmental Quality

Natural Resources

Wildlife & Fisheries

Louisiana’s Government - Departments

Photo from www.ldaf.state.la.us

Louisiana State Forests

E.g., Alexander State Forest & Indian Creek Recreation Area

E.g., Lake Ramsey Savannah WMA

K. Harms’ photo of 1-m2 plot containing > 30 species of flowering plants

Louisiana State Wildlife Management Areas

E.g., NGOs such as TNC – Lake Ramsay Preserve

K. Harms’ photo of 1-m2 plot containing > 30 species of flowering plants; TNC = The Nature Conservancy

Privately Protected Areas

See article in The Advocate on Latimore Smith & Lake Ramsay: Reviving Longleaf Pine

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

Privately Protected Areas

Image from July 4, 1977 Sports Illustrated from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Privately Protected Areas

Ted Turner (b. 1938)Media mogul & philanthropist

Among the world’s largest land owners (by acreage);

owns > 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

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Privately Protected Areas

Among the world’s largest land owners (by acreage);own > 2 million acres in U.S. & S. America

Doug Tompkins (b. 1943) – co-founder of The North Face® & ESPRIT®

& Kristine Tompkins (b. 1950) – former CEO of Patagonia®

Especially focused on conservation in Chilean wildlands (e.g., Pumalín Park)

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

Landowner may receive significant tax advantages for having donated or sold the conservation easement

Binding on all future owners of the property

Species Loss Occurs Even in Protected Areas

Fig. from J. S. Brashares (2010) “Filtering Wildlife” from Science

“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.”

Species Loss Occurs Even in Protected Areas

Fig. from W. D. Newmark (1987) Nature

“…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.”