Protected areas

Protected areas are essential for biodiversity conservation.

They are the cornerstones of virtually all national and

international conservation strategies, set aside to maintain

functioning natural ecosystems, to act as refuges for species

and to maintain ecological processes that cannot survive in

most intensely managed landscapes and seascapes. Protected

areas act as benchmarks against which we understand human

interactions with the natural world. Today they are often the

only hope we have of stopping many threatened or endemic

species from becoming extinct. They are complementary

to measures to achieve conservation and sustainable use of

biodiversity outside protected areas in accordance with CBD

guidelines such as the Malawi and Addis Ababa Principles

(CBD VII/11–12). Most protected areas exist in natural or

near-natural ecosystems, or are being restored to such a state,

although there are exceptions. Many contain major features of

earth history and earth processes while others document the

subtle interplay between human activity and nature in cultural

landscapes. Larger and more natural protected areas also

provide space for evolution and future ecological adaptation

and restoration, both increasingly important under conditions

of rapid climate change.

Protection Areas (Cambodia)

Such places also have direct human benefits. People – both

those living in or near protected areas and others from further

away – gain from the opportunities for recreation and renewal

available in national parks and wilderness areas, from the

genetic potential of wild species, and the environmental services

provided by natural ecosystems, such as provision of water.

Many protected areas are also essential for vulnerable human

societies and conserve places of value such as sacred natural sites.

Although many protected areas are set up by governments, others

are increasingly established by local communities, indigenous

peoples, environmental charities, private individuals, companies

and others.

There is a huge and growing interest in the natural world,

and protected areas provide us with opportunities to interact

with nature in a way that is increasingly difficult elsewhere.

They give us space that is otherwise lacking in an increasingly

managed and crowded planet.

Protected areas also represent a commitment to future

generations. Most people also believe that we have an ethical

obligation to prevent species loss due to our own actions and

this is supported by the teachings of the large majority of the

world’s religious faiths (Dudley et al., 2006). Protecting iconic

landscapes and seascapes is seen as being important from

a wider cultural perspective as well, and flagship protected

source: IUCN