24 May 2008 - Bonn,
May 22, 2008 – Well planned and managed
protected areas can play a key role in reducing
poverty, with the relationship strengthened
when well-being is measured as more than
just income, according to a new analysis
by WWF.
SafetyNet:protected
areas and poverty reduction, prepared with
the assistance of the environmental research
group Equilibrium, uses new tools to analyse
what works and what doesn't in improving
both human well-being and environmental
quality, finding that community involvement,
benefit sharing and consideration of protected
areas in overall landscapes are crucial
factors to consider.
“Poverty is much more
than not having enough money. Not having
enough to eat, or access to medicines or
a clean water supply are the fundamentals
which really define poverty at its most
basic level,” said Liza Higgins-Zogib, Manager
of People and Conservation at WWF International.
“We live in a world
where half of the six billion population
live not just on minimal incomes but most
are in rural areas depending a great deal
on natural resources for their nutrition,
shelter, health and nutrition. It is vital
that we appreciate that the right type of
well managed protected areas can make all
the difference to the lives of those people.”
The report’s analysis
draws from management effectiveness assessments
of over 1000 protected areas and developed
a new tool to assess protected area benefits
in detail in case studies drawn from Argentina,
Finland, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Poland
and Tanzania.
“Safety Net: protected
areas and poverty reduction” provides the
largest body of evidence yet of a strong
link between well managed protected areas
such as national parks and reserves and
increased levels of food, medicine, water
and cultural and spiritual fulfilment for
people living in the surrounding areas,
including some of the world’s poorest.
On Apo Island in the
Philippines, the establishment of protected
areas covering reefs and shorelines increased
the average fish catch from 0.15 kg/person
hour in 1980-81 to 1-2 kg/person hour in
1997-2001. Tourism revenues from the reef
are now estimated at $US 500 per hectare
per year and 75 per cent of tourist fees
go to the local community.
In China's Baimaxueshan
Nature Reserve, incomes from sustainable
mushroom harvesting in the park have risen
5 to 10 fold in the 70 villages participating
in the scheme while for 10,000 people in
and around Mairauà State Ecological
Station in Brazil incomes have increased
by 50 per cent and in some cases by 99 per
cent following the introduction of a park-based
Economic Alternatives Programme. Infant
mortality has declined by 53 percent with
better health education and water quality.
Although the report
stresses that every protected area is unique,
the most successful in terms of the benefit
they provided to poor people sought to balance
conservation and poverty reduction, established
direct and integrated links between the
needs of people and nature and recognized
that trade-offs between human and wildlife
needs needed to be negotiated.
In these cases, environmental
and development outcomes were well monitored
and protected areas were viewed, not in
isolation, but as parts of the overall landscape.
“It is all too easy
to over-simplify the relationship between
poverty and protected areas, but this report
makes a significant contribution to separating
myth from reality,” Higgins-Zogib said.
“It is clear from this research that protected
areas can and do lift many people above
the most basic levels of poverty, but the
report also reveals that protected areas
set up or managed without enough care for
human needs can have the opposite effect
on the lives of poor people.
“It is vital that those
involved in establishing and managing protected
areas remember that people are also part
of the landscape.”
Ministers commit to
zero net deforestation by 2020
28 May 2008 - Bonn –
Environment ministers from 60 countries
including Germany, host of the 9th Conference
of Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD COP9), today showed WWF and
the world they are serious in the fight
to stop forest loss, thereby safeguarding
biodiversity, global climate and people's
well-being. The ministers showed their commitment
at a WWF event held during the conference
in Bonn.
Led by the CBD Executive Secretary, Dr Ahmed
Djoghlaf, the ministers and the EU Commissioner
for the Environment made their commitment
via signed postcards addressed to WWF International's
Director-General, Mr James Leape.
"WWF is very pleased
that governments are rising to the challenge
of working towards zero net deforestation
by 2020," said Mr Leape, who received
the postcards from the ministers. "I
strongly urged other governments to follow
the lead of these countries to agree on
this target."
Despite much efforts,
deforestation continues at an alarming 13
million hectares per year, or 36 football
fields a minute.?rate Deforestation and
degradation of the world's forests have
dramatic consequences for biodiversity,
global climate and millions of people. Forest
contains 90 per cent of the world's terrestrial
biodiversity and have a vital role to play
in the fight against global warming, being
the largest storehouse of carbon on Earth.
Deforestation, particularly in the tropics,
is the third largest source of greenhouse
gas emissions, generating between 15-20
per cent of global carbon emissions.
Loss of forests also implies the loss of
goods and major food, medicine, watershed
protection,?ecological services to humanity
livelihoods, and climate and disaster mitigation.
About 1.6 billion people worldwide depend
on forests for their livelihoods, with 60
million indigenous people depending on forests
for their subsistence.
"We need to reverse
the trend in forest loss and stop further
erosion of the world's biodiversity, both
for nature and people's sakes," said
Dr Djoghlaf. “This initiative is welcome
news for the biodiversity family gathered
here in Bonn, to expedite the implementation
of the three objectives of the Convention
on Biological Diversity. It is indeed a
timely initiative, and I applaud WWF for
its unique contribution for protecting life
on Earth.”
WWF has set the 2020
zero deforestation target to support and
enhance the CBD's Forest Programme of Work.
The target also complements global efforts
under the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, which at its conference of parties
in Bali last December, which acknowledged
the need to reduce carbon emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation. Although
ambitious, the target does provide sufficient
time for action as reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)
initiatives will be operational when the
second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
comes into effect post 2012. Additionally,
as a study by WWF-Brazil and partners launched
yesterday revealed, protected areas is a
useful and viable tool to achieve reduction
in forest loss and mitigating climate change.
"WWF would like
to see the CBD COP9 adopt this 2020 zero
net deforestation target here in Bonn,"
Mr Leape said. "Governments have to
act now or we will lose even more the forests
that are life's basic building blocks, and
that provide essential services to humanity."
WWF thanks all ministers
who signed the postcards and pledges to
support and work with them in the fight
to stop forest loss.
Gerald Steindlegger, WWF International
Chng Soh-Koon, WWF International
