Julia Marton-Lefèvre is the Director General of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Photo: IUCN
Marc Ona Essangui est né au Gabon. Atteint d’une poliomyélite depuis son enfance, il se déplace en fauteuil roulant, un handicap qui l’a contraint à renoncer à devenir avocat car les locaux de la...
Alistair Gammell is director of the Chagos campaign, a project of the Pew Environment Group’s Global Ocean Legacy initiative to help secure the establishment of large, world-class marine reserves....
Professor Virgílio Viana is one of Brazil’s leading experts on forestry, environment and sustainable development. He served as Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development and is...
IUCN : Created in 1948, the World Conservation Union or International Union for the Conservation ofr Nature (IUCN) brings together 81 States, 120 government agencies, 800 plus NGOs, and some 10,000...
Antoine Lévêque is a doctoral student majoring in animal systems and, more specifically, lepidopterology (the study of butterflies). He is a research assistant for “Natural Heritage, Biodiversity”,...
François RAMADE, an agricultural engineer who holds a doctoral post-graduate degree in science, is a professor emeritus at the Université Paris-Sud (Orsay). He is a former President of the Société...
The problems encountered today in the establishment and management of protected areas are rather diverse but some, which arise directly from steps taken during recent decades, are recurring. For example, at the inception of protected sites, there was a sharp divide between the desire to conserve biodiversity and the desire to safeguard the well-being of local populations. Yet, as François Ramade observes in Text 1, the zoning of these areas was not often done based on studies of species biology or ecosystems with a goal of conservation, nor was the interaction with the surrounding non-conserved areas taken into account. However, more coherent and sustainable management initiatives were taken in some countries, for example in France and in Central America, as shown in texts 2 and 3 respectively.
In text 2, Antoine Lévêque describes the degree of urban sprawl of protected areas of metropolitan France. He presents us with the different types of areas that exist in France as well as their various degrees of protection (for example, the contrast between the regulated protection of the natural reserves and the less protected sites of Ramsar). Finally, he gives us a description of different types of protected zones in order to show how their diversity is safeguarded through an often satisfying limitation on development.Recently, some models of locally-protected sites have emerged. In text 3, Vivienne S. Rivera presents the “Community Conserved Areas” in Central America. These were thought up in response to the ineffectiveness of classic park models that did not take into account local particularities. For example, restrictive regulation violated indigenous peoples' right to access the ecosystem's services and resources.
These new structures, however, correct this oversight, empowering indigenous peoples not only as protectors of the ecosystem, but also as direct beneficiaries of the sustainable development of their environment, by rationalising their use of said services and resources (with tourism, for example).
Quenza - France : photo réalisée en mars 2005 dans la région de l'Alta Rocca en Corse du Sud, d'un mouflon de Corse, une espèce endémique de l'île © AFP photo Olivier Laban-Mattei
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