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
E.g., Windsor Castle’s
Great Park
Photo of Windsor Castle & Great Park from Wikimedia Commons
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 help
avoid 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)
Definition from IUCN
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
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.”
Quote from Wilcove (2008) “No Way Home” – pg. 205
United Nations Educational, Scientific
& Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945
International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources (IUCN)
UNESCO’s first Director General, Sir Julian Huxley, helped establish this
institution in 1948, to give UNESCO a more scientific base
Logos from respective Web sites
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 ecosystem
protection & 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
United Nations Conference on Environment &
Development, a.k.a. Rio Earth Summit, 1992
Two major achievements of the Earth Summit:
Kyoto Protocol
(adopted 1997, Kyoto, Japan)
Convention on Biological Diversity
(key objective = to develop national strategies for
the conservation & sustainable use of biodiversity)
Logo from www.eoearth.org
UNESCO Programme on Man & the
Biosphere (MAB) – Biosphere Reserves
(531 in 105 countries since est. in 1970s)
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
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
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 on Wetlands of International
Importance (est. in Ramsar, Iran)
(1,801 sites since est. in 1971)
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
U.S. National Parks
Classification as of 2003
National Battlefield, National Battlefield Park, National
Military Park & National Battlefield Site
National Historical Park, National Historic Site, &
International Historic Site
National Lakeshore
National Memorial
National Monument
National Park
National Parkway
National Preserve & National Reserve
National Recreation Area
National River & National Wild & Scenic River &
Riverway
National Scenic Trail
National Seashore
Other Designations (White House, National Mall, etc.)
Totals
Table from Wikipedia
Number
Acreage
24
64,738.87
120
204,840.71
4
28
73
58
4
20
18
228,873.58
10,541.50
2,277,010.75
51,961,285.92
176,344.29
24,189,328.85
3,692,664.98
15
746,357.19
3
10
11
237,995.55
595,078.55
40,128.85
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. Military Installations
E.g., Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
U.S. National Forests
E.g., Kisatchie National Forest
Map from www.fs.fed.us
Louisiana’s Government - Departments
Agriculture & Forestry
Culture, Recreation & Tourism
Environmental Quality
Natural Resources
Wildlife & Fisheries
Logos of LA Departments engaged in protected area activities from respective departmental Web sites
Louisiana State Forests
E.g., Alexander State Forest & Indian Creek Recreation Area
Photo from www.ldaf.state.la.us
Louisiana State Wildlife Management Areas
E.g., Lake Ramsey [sic] Savannah WMA
K. Harms’ photo of 1-m2 plot containing > 30 species of flowering plants
Privately Protected Areas
E.g., NGOs such as TNC – Lake Ramsay [sic] Preserve
K. Harms’ photo of 1-m2 plot containing > 30 species of flowering plants; TNC = The Nature Conservancy
Privately Protected Areas
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
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
Image from July 4, 1977 Sports Illustrated from http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Privately Protected Areas
Doug Tompkins (b. 1943) – co-founder of The North Face® & ESPRIT®
& Kristine Tompkins (b. 1950) – former CEO of Patagonia®
Among the world’s largest land owners (by acreage);
own > 2 million acres in U.S. & S. America
Especially focused on conservation in Chilean wildlands (e.g., Pumalín Park)
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
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
Binding on all future owners of the property
Landowner may receive significant tax advantages for having
donated or sold the conservation easement
Species Loss Occurs Even in Protected Areas
“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.”
Fig. from J. S. Brashares (2010) “Filtering Wildlife” from Science
Species Loss Occurs Even in Protected Areas
“…the natural postestablishment 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.”
Fig. from W. D. Newmark (1987) Nature