History of Protected Areas: What are protected areas protecting? April 3, 2007 Bianca Perla.

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1 History of Protected Areas: What are protected areas protecting? April 3, 2007 Bianca Perla

2 A Protected Area is… "an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means.“ -World Commission on Protected Areas http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/

3 Indigenous Cultures "...we were the original conservationists…our ways of farming pollinated diverse seed species and maintained corridors between ecosystems." Maasai leader Martin Saning'o, eastern Africa “the Batwaa people, as one naturalist noted, were part of the fauna.” (Dowie, 2005)

4 Mauryan Empire, India 321-185 BCE Ashoka 273- 232 BCE 1 of 34 edicts Protected Areas and Empires

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6  Forestris, Germany, 556 CE- non-timber products: grazing, honey, beeswax.  Hunting grounds- Normans England 1079, China, Persia, Romania 1457.  Japan 1500’s Protected forests for conservation of soil and water  1800’s records of forest protected areas to conserve water and soil in Switzerland and Austria Protected Areas (500 CE- 1872)

7 What are protected areas protecting? 500 CE-1872  Natural Resources- Game, non-timber forest products, soil and water quality  People as part of protected areas  Protected areas managed for and by ruling class  Sacred places, animals, plants, cultural heritage

8 Early American Protected Areas 1872-1960 Late 1800’s- unique idea of wilderness arises in response to manifest destiny, combines with democratic ideals 1872- Yellowstone is established as the First National Park 1905- United States Forest Service 1916- National Park Service Organic Act 1917- Earliest call for taxonomically, ecologically comprehensive system of protected lands unheeded. 1960’s- Exportation of National Park Model

9 Indigenous protective covenants and traditions Royal hunting grounds Sacred forest groves Early working forests, “Forestris” United States Forest Service National Parks and wilderness Scientific reserves

10 Challenges 1. Funding: “if the railroads were conducted in the same manner as National Parks, no man would be brave enough to ride from Washington to Baltimore.” –Secretary of Interior Franklin K. Lane 1914 2. Public Support: Bills to create the Park Service failed continually, the public didn’t know about parks or care about their condition, visitation was low. 3. Adhoc and unorganized: no plan for the parks and no enforcement.

11 Stephen Mather Horace Albright

12 Early Management Values and Research paradigms and protected areas Parks as scenic vistas (Swain 1970) Parks as biological islands (Turner et al. 2001) People as separate from protected areas. Top-down management. (Cronon 1996)

13 Current Condition of Biodiversity in United States From Shaffer et al. 2002  100 species extinct  1/3 of all flowering plants, certain invertebrate groups, and all vertebrates are species of conservation concern  27 ecosystems have declined in area by 98% or more since European colonization  Threatened and endangered species increased 7-fold (174-1244) between 1976-2000.  5% of land area is in protected areas but less than half of the vegetation types in US have 10% of land area in a protected area  Rock and Ice conservation (40% of at risk species are only on private land)

14 Park visitation http://www2.nature.nps.gov/stats/ http://www.nps.gov/archive/2016/

15 Rise of Private Protected Areas Nature Conservancy owns over 117 million acres of land and 5000 miles of river in all United States and 27 different countries (tnc.org) Conservation International works in more than 40 countries (www.conservation.org) In Southern Africa more land is held in protection by private entities than by the government or IUCN (Furniss 2005) US has more than 1500 Land Trusts (Shaffer et al. 2002)

16 Cumulative growth in global protected areas in 5yr increments 1872-2003 (List of protected areas report, IUCN, 2003) 11.5 % of the world exists in protected areas

17 Article 8 Convention on Biological Diversity www.biodiv.org/convention/a rticles.asp?lg=0anda=cbd-08 Convention on wetlands of international importance www.ramsar.org Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage www.whc.unesco.org Man in the Biosphere Program www.unesco.org/mab World Commission on PA’s www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/ Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund www.cepf.net/ First International Marine Protected Areas Congress www.impacongress.org/ Current Protected Area Treaties See also Parris 2003

18 Current Protected Area Management Agencies INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Counterparts to U.S. institutions can be found in most countries of the world regardless of economic prosperity or size (Parris 2003) i.e. Australia National Parks and Wildlife Service, Gabon National Parks, Philippines Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, South Africa’s National Parks and Heritage Resources Agency. Non-profit programs assisting developing nations: Parks in Peril, World Land trust. UNITED STATES USNPS USFS BLM National Landscape Conservation System US Marine Protected Areas- joint managed by NOAA, DOI State Parks Over 1500 Private non-profit land trusts

19 Despite over 11% of the world existing in protected area designations, biodiversity continues to decline on a global scale -IUCN World Parks Congress  Loss of large predators and other species (Cheville et al. 1998, Carroll et al. 2004)  Invasive species (Pauchard and Alaback 2004)  Biotic homogenization (Rooney et al. 2004)  Disruption of ecosystem processes (Hansen 2000)  Distrust and anger in some local communities near parks (Machlis and Field 2000, Stevens 1997). PROBLEMS

20 Protected areas impact, and are impacted by people living in the landscape surrounding protected areas: through decisions, perceptions, and socioeconomic factors that drive land-use change around protected areas (Achana and O’Leary 2000, Brandon and Wells 1992) “If local people do not support protected areas than protected areas cannot last.” – S. Ramphal, President of IUCN, IV World Parks Congress, 1992 “We are enemies of conservation.” –Martin Saning’o, Masaai

21 “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

22 Parks are not separate from surrounding landscapes Modified from Shafer 1990

23 Photo: Turner et al. 2001 THE MATRIX  supports species populations  regulates organism movement  buffers sensitive areas or reserves  maintains integrity of aquatic ecosystems Lindenmayer and Franklin (2002)

24 International Protected Areas 1962- First World Conference on National Parks convenes in Seattle, WA 1968-UNESCO Man in the Biosphere Program- first attempt at including people-sustainability as focus rather than wilderness preservation-zoning methodology 1980- Integrated Conservation and Development Planning 1982-Rio Earth Summit Convention on Biological Diversity signed by 188 countries 1990’s- Ecosystem Scale planning Late 1990’s early 2000- Canada, Australia, New Zealand, some parts of Latin America create progressive policies relating to traditional land rights (i.e. Indigenous Protected Areas)

25 I.Strict Nature Reserve/Wilderness Area: protected area managed mainly for science or wilderness protection II.National Park: protected area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation III. Natural Monument: protected area managed mainly for conservation of specific natural features IV. Habitat/Species Management Area: protected area managed mainly for conservation through management intervention V. Protected Landscape/Seascape: protected area managed mainly for landscape/seascape protection and recreation. VI. Managed Resource Protected Area: protected area managed mainly for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems. http://www.iucn.org/themes/wcpa/pubs/pdfs/iucncategories.pdf

26 1/3 of the worlds largest cities rely on protected watersheds for their water supply and in parts of West Africa the only forest remaining is in protected areas (Furniss 2005) Sometimes the only effective tool available to rapidly stop excessive degradation of highly threatened areas (McNeely 1994) Good for species that are intolerant of human disturbance, and highly endemic species with limited ranges (Putz et al. 2000) Provide less disturbed environments for control sites and safety nets (Lindenmayer and Franklin 2002) Diversification of the Protected Area Model holds promise of increasing the utility and effectiveness of protected areas: IUCN has 6 different categories for protected areas currently…. Protected areas are still the most effective tools for conservation in some cases…

27 What are protected areas protecting?  Natural Resources/Ecosystem Services- Game, non-timber forest products, soil and water quality  Sacred places, animals, plants, cultural heritage  Wilderness, scenery, natural/cultural heritage  Biodiversity  Sustainability, Ecosystem Services, Human well-being

28 Management and Research paradigms and protected areas Early cultures > 321 BCE 321 BCE - 1872 19601990 > 2000 Community driven People included Local-scale Enforced by rulers People excluded 1872 Top-down management Democratization Lands in Trust People excluded Isolation Mgt Biol. Islands Biodiversity Ecosystem management Adaptive Management People included Landscape mgt Community driven People included What’s next ??????? CONSERVATION SCIENCE

29 Indigenous protective covenants and traditions Royal hunting grounds Sacred forest groves Early working forests, “Forestris” National Parks and wilderness National Parks and wilderness Biosphere Reserves Protected Landscapes Indigenous Protected Areas National Parks Conservation Easements Wilderness Research Natural Areas Natural Monuments Wildland Networks TIME

30 Challenges for Protected Areas--21 st century:  Complexity  Large Scale  Socio-economic as well as ecological factors affect protected area success  Jurisdictional boundaries means data available is often not uniform and management mandates may conflict

31 “One of the anomalies of modern ecology is that it is the creation of two groups, each of which seems barely aware of the existence of the other. The one studies the human community almost as if it were a separate entity, and calls its findings sociology, economics, and history. The other studies the plant and animal community and comfortably relegates the hodge-podge of politics to the liberal arts. The inevitable fusion of the two lines of thought will, perhaps, constitute the outstanding advance of the present century.” Aldo Leopold 1935