Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Protected Areas Have Come of Age Author(s): Jeffrey A. McNeely Source: Ambio, Vol. 11, No. 5, The World's Protected Areas (1982), pp. 236-237 Published by: Springer on behalf of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4312812 . Accessed: 03/09/2013 06:52
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Protected Areas
There has always been something of a love-hate relationship between man and nature.On one hand man lived off the fat of the land, but on the other, mother nature was fickle, unpredictable:what she provided free of charge, she also took away, threatening Man's very survival. Through the years, man adapted to this situation,evolvingsocial systems, technology, and customs which allowed him to live in a sort of balance with his environment, to make a comfortableaccommodation to naturalconstraints.Human life at the Stone Age level has been called "the originalaffluent society" because "primitive people" who are in balancewith their environmentare able to live so well on so little (1). The people who continue their existence at traditional levels today are "ecosystem people" who live within the limits established by their local environments (2). Once agriculturebegan to evolve some 10 000 years ago, man's relationshipwith the landbeganto changeat an accelerating rate; the ecosystem of Homo sapiens expandedas man began to controlthe forces of naturefor the benefit of his expanding population.The most favorableareassoon began to support civilizationswhich converted naturallandscapesinto agricultural landscapes; wild species of plants and animalswhich were adapted to the most fertilesoils becameextinct, or had to adapt to less favorablehabitats. But even with the coming of agriculture there was a rich diversityof local cultural adaptationsto local conditions, and wide areas of natural vegetation remained, especiallyin the uplandswhich sometimes served as buffer zones between civilizations. These tractsof "untouched"wilderness continued to support populationsof traditional ecosystem people who maintained their cultural,linguisticand ecological distinctness from the lowland agricultural civilizations. While the area of wildernesswas reduced, it was still extensive and muchof the naturalworldwas still protectedfrom the most disruptivehuman influencesby such cultural/ecological factors as taboos preventing over-exploitation, tribalwarfarewhich kept wide areas as wilderness "buffer zones" between groups, or land ownership by ancestors ratherthan individuals(3). It was the industrial revolution which finally changed things on a global scale. Whatwas once a diversecollectionof local

Have

Autumn colors frame the sacred mountain of Ama-Dablang in Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park. Photo: Jefferies.

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orne

of

Age

A MCNEELY BYJEFFREY

ecosystemsor river-basincivilizationsbecame a muchless diverseand moreclosely interlinkedsystem which covered the entire world. Ecosystem people became "biospherepeople," who drew their support not from any one local ecosystembut fromthe entirecapitalof the world'sliving resources (2). A simplified example will illustratethe point: Oil from SaudiArabia fuels the machinesand makes the fertilizers and pesticides which allow marginal land in West Africa to grow a crop of cocoa for Switzerland to make into chocolate which it flies on American-madeairplanes to Singapore for distribution in Southeast Asia; the profit made by the West African farmer allows him to purchase a Japanese motorcycle, Ethiopian coffee, and Thai rice. The result of this greatly expandedhumanecologicalniche can be seen clearlyin the boomingpopulationof the species. At least for the time being, biosphereman is able to continue reproducinghimself because of the energysubsidies(coal and oil) providedfor the growingand distribution of food-the "crude capital" of human ecosystems, which have been "dead" for millions of years. The dominanceof this all-encompassing ecosystemhas placedthe human species in a position to destroy many living resources and to disruptthe naturalecological processeswhich sustain all life. Whereas species and ecosystems were conservedin simplertimes by the low level of technology, cultural controls on overexploitation,and man's relativeecological humbleness, other, more explicit, conservationmechanismshave become necessary as man's technology allows him to exceed natural ecological controls. One mechanism is the establishmentof protected areas. Early in the industrialrevolution,a few individuals of vision saw some of the dangers inherent in man's increasingimpact on nature and promoted the concept of man's purposefulresponsibilityfor ensuring the survivalof at least representative portionsof naturalecosystems. Following the establishment of YellowstoneNational Park in Wyomingin 1872, the protected area movementgrew steadilyand has now extendedover the entire globe. The InternationalUnion for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has provided an "official"definitionof a "national park" (4), and in 1959 a Resolution of
AMBIO. 1982

the United Nations Economic and Social Council charged IUCN with the task of formingand maintaining an up-to-datelist of the world's nationalparks and equivalent reserves. An internationalresponse has been generatedto counterthe hazards inherentin modernbiosphereman'ssometimes clumsy exploitation of the world's ecosystems. The industrialage today seems to be rapidlyreachinga pointwhereit will either collapse or go on to bigger and better riches far beyond human imagination. Whateverhappens, protected areas must adaptto the changingconditions.Evolving from the National Park idea of strict protection and promotion of tourism which had its inceptionat Yellowstone over 100 years ago, protected areas now must be managedconsciouslyto contributeto modern social, ecological and economic demands(5). An importantstep in this directionwas taken in 1980, with the publicationof the
World Conservation Strategy (6). This

differentobjectivesfor bringing benefitsto society (5). These include Strict Nature Reserves, Managed Nature Reserves, NaturalMonuments, Cultural Landscapes, BiosphereReserves, and severalothers. The World National Parks Congress, taking place in Bali, Indonesia, October 11-22 1982, will providecase studiesfrom aroundthe worldto illustratehow the various categories of protected areas are meetingthe needs of countriesof all economic, social, cultural,and politicalbackgrounds.With greatlyincreasedresponsibilitiesfor helpingto ensurethat socialand economic development meets the real needs of society, protected areas are now receivinga significantly greateramountof support from governments, international development agencies, and local people. No longerjust playgrounds for vacationers andmeansfor conservingnaturalheritage, protectedareas have become an inseparable partof the modernhumanecosystem.
References and Notes
1. M Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, Aldine, Chicago (1972). 2. R F Dasmann, "National parks, nature conservation, and future primitive," Ecologist 6 (5), 164 (1980) 3. AMARU IV Cooperative, The Once and Future Resource Managers, A report to World Wildlife Fund-US (1980). 4. J-P Harroy, United Nations List of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves (Second Edition), IUCN, Morges, Switzerland (1971). 5. K R Miller, Planning National Parks for Ecodevelopment, Center for Strategic Wildland Management Studies, Ann Arbor (1980). 6. IUCN, The World Conservation Strategy, IUCN, Gland (1980).

document defined conservation as "the management of human use of the biosphere so that it may yield the greatest sustainablebenefit to present generations while maintaining its potentialto meet the needs and aspirationsof future generations."Livingresourceconservation under this definitionis seen to have three specific objectives:to maintainessentialecological processesand life-support systems;to preserve genetic diversity;and to ensure that any utilizationof species and ecosystemsis sustainable.Conservationtherefore is expected to make importantcontributions to socialandeconomicdevelopment,butnew policies must evolve in order for national parks and other categories of protected areas to make their most useful contribution to humanwelfare. The rapid changes in economic and social developmentwhich have taken place in recent years have already led to new approachesto the protectionof plant and animalspecies. In virtuallyall nations,the urgencyto link naturalarea preservation to development through research, baseline monitoring, environmental assessment, genetic materials maintenance, watershed management, environmental education,and the like, has led to a shiftin management of natural areas; national parks are as importantas ever, but there are a number of additionalcategories of protected areas which are managed with

Jeffrey A McNeely has been Executive Officer of the IUCN's Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas since 1980; he is responsible for the programof the WorldNational Parks Congress. Previously, he was stationed in Java, where he administered the World Wildlife Fund's conservation program in support of Indonesia's efforts to develop an effective system of protected areas. He spent seven years in Thailand, designing a system of protected areas for the Mekong Basin and writing Mammals of Thailandwith Dr. Boonsong Lekagul. He also carried out two years of ecological fieldwork in the Himalayas of Eastern Nepal. His address: IUCN,Ave. du Mont-Blanc, CH-1196Gland, Switzerlfnd.

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