IF SUCCESS in conservation were measured in the number or extent of wilderness areas under permanent protection, then conservationists would have cause to celebrate. There are now more than 100,000 protected areas, covering 18.8 million square kilometres or some 12 per cent of the Earth鈥檚 land surface. That鈥檚 as much as the area of Canada, the US and Germany combined, or the total area under permanent crops across the world.
Some 130 years have passed since the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, the world鈥檚 first. Its founders may not have realised that they would inspire a ground-breaking change in land use. While people have managed and protected natural resources that they value for thousands of years, the founding of Yellowstone was unprecedented in having as its primary objectives both the preservation of wilderness and encouraging public access to the park.
In less than two centuries, 102,102 protected areas have been established across the planet, according to the 2003 UN List of Protected Areas, released at the fifth IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban last month. These reserves are spread fairly evenly across the developed and developing world, and cover between 10 and 30 per cent of the planet鈥檚 vital natural features, such as Amazonian rainforests, Arctic tundra, tropical savannahs and desert ecosystems. They harbour the world鈥檚 most extraordinary species, provide job opportunities for local communities, and sustain the planet鈥檚 life-support systems: our air and water.
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All this sounds like an extraordinary achievement. But is it? We are overwhelmed by bleak stories about dwindling numbers of apes, big cats, Asian elephants, sharks and many other species. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that at least 11,000 known species are threatened with extinction, which is between 1000 and 10,000 times the 鈥渂ackground鈥� or natural extinction rate.
How can we explain these two radically different scenarios: unprecedented areas of wilderness under protection, and unprecedented numbers of species on their way to extinction? What do these protected areas protect, and for whom? And how important are they in the battle to save the Earth鈥檚 species?
There is no question that nature reserves can directly improve the prospects for a species, and that their absence can leave it extremely vulnerable. Take the case of the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum), which exists as two subspecies. Rescued from near extinction a century ago, the southern white rhino stands as one of the world鈥檚 great conservation success stories. Numbers increased from approximately 20 in 1895 to just over 10,300 by the end of the 20th century, with a further 721 in captivity. Protected areas in South Africa, where 94 per cent of these animals now live, and in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Swaziland and Tanzania, have played a major role in stabilising and gradually restoring its populations.
By contrast, the situation facing the northern white rhino is critical. A recent survey suggests that only 22 individuals survive in their only refuge, the Garamba National Park in the war-stricken Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Congo is an extreme example, yet even in places where there is no conflict, protected areas by themselves are not enough to conserve every species. At least 700 endangered species are not protected by existing parks and reserves, according to a recent joint study by IUCN and the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International in Washington DC. Among them is the Comoro black flying fox (Pteropus livingstonii), one of the rarest fruit bats in the world, which is found in the islands of the same name in the Indian Ocean. Another is Handley鈥檚 slender mouse opossum (Marmosa handleyi) in Colombia.
However, species conservation is only one part of what protected areas are designed to achieve. Their overall purpose is to conserve biodiversity in its broad context: from gene pools, to ecosystems, to human cultural diversity. For example, the Greenland National Park, which at nearly 1 million square kilometres is the world鈥檚 largest, may appear poor in biodiversity. But it is one of the last wild spots on the planet and an important area not only for polar wildlife 鈥� including musk oxen, narwhals, seals, ermine and arctic wolves 鈥� but also for local Ittoqqortoormiit communities, who derive their livelihoods from caribou hunting.
What is clear is that the quality of protected areas matters more than the quantity. This is why conservation organisations are now putting as much emphasis on managing existing reserves as on creating new ones. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is to change the way we think about protected areas. In the past they have been seen as islands of protection in an ocean of destruction. We need to learn to look on them as the building blocks of biodiversity in an ocean of sustainable human development, with their benefits extending far beyond their physical boundaries. Only in this way can we hope to stem the loss of species amid burgeoning human populations.