4.12 Integrating conservation with local communities can help sustain protected areas

image

What economic activities should be allowed in each of the zones pictured in Figure 4.31? Which should be prohibited?

120

One of the most serious threats to protected areas is encroaching development in surrounding areas. As the environment surrounding a protected area becomes increasingly degraded and fragmented, the protected area itself becomes an increasingly isolated habitat (Figure 4.30). In addition, many protected areas are further compromised when local people illegally remove plants and animals from the protected area itself. However, such problems have been reduced substantially where managers and residents of surrounding communities work cooperatively. Such cooperative relationships arise where local communities derive clear economic benefits from the protected area and its surroundings.

ENCROACHMENT BY DEVELOPMENT CAN ISOLATE AND THREATEN PROTECTED AREAS
image
FIGURE 4.30 Where intensive development encroaches, a protected area becomes increasingly island-like and more vulnerable to invasion by invasive species. Such conditions eventually lead to reduced biodiversity within the protected area.
(Jeffrey Greenberg/Science Source)

buffer zone A zone around a nature reserve or protected area in which limited economic activity is allowed.

One method of ensuring these direct benefits is to establish buffer zones around the core of a protected area in which the local community can pursue a number of economic activities, such as harvesting of wood, fishing, and some agriculture, while highly restricting activity in the core of the protected area (Figure 4.31). Involving the local community in the management of protected areas can yield additional benefits.

A BUFFER ZONE CREATES A GRADIENT OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
image
FIGURE 4.31 Buffer zones allow some level of economic activity in regions around protected areas, which decrease in intensity toward the core of a protected area. By providing economic benefits, such buffer zones can help build and sustain support for protected areas within nearby communities.

Community Integration Provides Protection

The Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica provides a model for the integration of a protected area with the local community. Situated in the dry tropical forest on the Pacific coast, Guanacaste has more than 100 full-time employees, 80% of whom are from the surrounding communities. In addition, the conservation area offers dozens of part-time and seasonal positions, and over the years local people have been heavily involved in ongoing biodiversity studies. The scientific knowledge resulting from studies in the reserve is also being used to help farmers and ranchers in the surrounding agricultural lands.

The Guanacaste Conservation Area has also taken creative approaches to protecting the preserve by employing known poachers as game wardens, as well as known fire-starters for fire protection. Finally, Guanacaste has developed a variety of educational materials, emphasizing environmental education, and has become an educational center, where students from the surrounding area take several field trips per year (Figure 4.32). Through these multiple efforts, the Guanacaste Conservation Area has become a source of economic gain, educational opportunity, and pride for the people of northwest Costa Rica.

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH CONNECTS PROTECTED AREAS WITH COMMUNITIES
image
FIGURE 4.32 The Guanacaste Conservation Area acts as a center for environmental education for the surrounding communities. Local students, in grades 4 to 8, take several guided field trips, such as this one, each year to educational centers located in the conservation area.
(Courtesy Área de Conservación Guanacaste)

Looking Beyond the Boundaries

Protected areas can be threatened by events taking place far away. For example, toxic chemicals dumped in the water can decimate freshwater and marine populations in distant protected areas. Toxic gases and pollutants can drift from industrial and urban areas into parks. Carbon dioxide emitted in one country can alter global temperature and precipitation patterns all over the world, threatening all protected ecosystems on Earth.

Protecting natural ecosystems and the biodiversity they sustain is a key to sustaining Earth’s biodiversity. However, protected areas cannot be sustained as islands of exceptional biodiversity in a matrix of degraded ecosystems. The long-term security of protected areas depends on developing a comprehensive and integrated approach to sustaining healthy regional and global environments.

121

Think About It

  1. What dangers to biodiversity conservation may occur if human communities are allowed unrestricted access and use of the protected areas?

  2. What are the dangers if protected areas are completely isolated from human communities?

  3. What would be a viable middle ground regarding protection versus use of biodiversity reserves?

image

What are the implications of global climate change to the functions of protected areas over the long term?

4.9–4.12 Solutions: Summary

The Convention for Biological Diversity set the stage for efforts to protect ecosystems and their biodiversity. Protected areas are a key part of this solution, and today there are more than 100,000 of them across the globe. A second key to effectively conserving Earth’s biodiversity is involving a broad range of stakeholders, including local communities and NGOs such as The Nature Conservancy. Sustaining biodiversity requires not only the establishment of protected areas, but also management through maintenance of keystone species, regulation of the fire regime, and control of invasive species. In many situations, sustaining the biodiversity values of protected areas may be enhanced by integration with human communities beyond their boundaries.