With these kind of changes to our National Forests and Parks, we won't have to worry about ATVs user conflicts with bicyclists on federal and state forest and park trails. The forests and the parks will have already been wrecked by other causes, such as climate change, habitat loss, fragmentation and the like. . ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Global Changes Threaten World�s Protected Areas August 21, 2003
Experts today warned that global changes such as climate change, growing population, and invasive alien species are threatening the unprecedented gains made in establishing parks and protected areas worldwide which today cover nearly 13 percent of the world's land area. Since the establishment of Yellowstone as the world's first national park in 1872, there are now 102,101 protected areas covering 18.8 million square kilometers. The total protected areas have more than doubled in the last ten years. This is larger than Canada, the United States, and Germany combined. " Many of these protected areas are the last strongholds of nature, and now global changes driven by humans are battering their doors," said Dr. Kenton Miller, vice president for conservation of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and chair of the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). "We must find ways to adapt to these changes to ensure the long-term sustainability of our parks and protected areas." The warning was issued in advance of the Fifth World Parks Congress, organized by the IUCN-The World Conservation Union and the WCPA in Durban, South Africa, Sept. 8-17. The congress, held once every ten years, is the premier gathering of the world's experts on protected areas. Some 2,500 experts from more than 170 countries will attend. " Some of the world's rarest species are dependent on protected areas", said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. "As threats are increasing to almost every ecosystem, the critical resources humanity has sought to protect in these areas are at risk." In the past, protected areas managers had to contend only with such traditional problems as lack of legislation establishing protected areas, problems of land tenure, and lack of financing. Frequently, however, their efforts have been reactive - responding to the crises of the moment with little thought to long-term concerns that may threaten their very existence. Today, they have to contend with such global changes as the impact of climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation by roads, rising sea levels, growing human populations, invasive alien species of plants and animals, changing tastes and preferences of people, and decentralization of political control. " These problems are coming right behind us and can easily overwhelm the problems of the past," said John Waugh, acting director of the US office of IUCN-The World Conservation Union. "Protected areas and parks are at the heart of the ecosystems we need to sustain life on earth." Published by Sustainable Development International http://www.sustdev.org/industry.news/2003/21.08.03-2.html ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
