d.  A MISCELLANY

Australia: Urban invasive species

Many Australian protected areas in and near cities are severely impacted by invasive species, especially feral cats and dogs and garden plants that go wild. Local authorities are helping to control these invasives. Here are two examples: 

·      Dandenong Ranges National Park (IUCN Category II), in the northeastern suburbs of Melbourne, has trouble with feral cats that prey on wildlife, including ground-dwelling birds. The local government, the Shire of Yarra Ranges, has enacted strict regulations controlling pet cats, including a night curfew.     

·      Blue Mountains National Park (IUCN Category II), 100 km west of Sydney, has a serious problem with exotic plants spreading from private gardens. The park is one of seven protected areas within the Blue Mountains World Heritage Site. It lies within the city of Blue Mountains, which calls itself “The City within a World Heritage National Park.” The city has a public information program aimed at encouraging property owners to remove exotic invasives and replace them with plants indigenous to the immediate area, especially those that are wildlife-friendly. 

Web sites: Shire of Yarra Ranges: http://www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au (go to “Infractions”); City of Blue Mountains: http://www.weedsbluemountains.org.au. 

Brazil: The São Paolo Greenbelt

The Forest Institute of the São Paulo state government is using a biosphere reserve as a mechanism for managing a greenbelt.

São Paulo has a population of 20.2 million and is the world’s fifth largest urban agglomeration. It is surrounded by the São Paolo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve, composed of several state parks and other protected areas. The Forest Institute is responsible for coordination. The greenbelt is the subject of a subglobal assessment under the global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (Victor 2006; MA 2006, UNESCO 2006b).

In 1993, the greenbelt was made an integral part of the Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve, which covers important parts of the Atlantic rain forest that stretches over 3,000 km along Brazil’s coast. Within the southern part of the biosphere reserve are 25 protected areas that comprise the Southeast Atlantic Forest Reserves World Heritage Site.

Biosphere reserves are areas recognized within the framework of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme. They consist of a core protected area, or a cluster of such areas, a buffer zone, and an outer transition area. They bring together stakeholders ranging from conservation agencies and scientists to economic interests and local authorities. In addition, one of their main purposes is to foster international exchange of information and experience.

Under UNESCO guidelines, each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfill three complementary functions: (1) conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species, and genetic variation; (2) local economic development that is culturally, socially, and ecologically sustainable; and (3) research, monitoring, education, and information exchange related to local, national, and global issues of conservation and development.

Although several biosphere reserves already exist alongside or close to cities, their role has generally been limited to coordinating conservation activities. The idea of a distinct category of urban biosphere reserve is being considered in several countries and by UNESCO. The proponents of this new category offer a different perspective, among other things, on how managers of protected areas can cope with (and take advantage of) urbanization and its impacts. Their ideas and energy could also help to invigorate the biosphere reserve concept, a good concept that has yet to reach its potential (Trzyna 2005a, 18-19).

Web sites: São Paulo City Green Belt Biosphere Reserve: http://www.iflorestal.sp.gov.br/rbcv (Portuguese). Mata Atlântica Biosphere Reserve: http://www.rbma.org.br (Portuguese). UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Urban Group: http://www.unesco.org/mab/ecosyst.urban.shtml.

Cape Verde: Second-home enclaves on the island of Sal

Cape Verde, an independent republic composed of a group of islands in the mid-Atlantic Ocean some 450 km west of Senegal, is a good example of how tourism, second-home, and retirement development is affecting vulnerable environments formerly considered remote.

Much of this is on the island of Sal, which is only 30 km long by 12 km wide. Sal’s population is 14,000; its largest town, Vila dos Espargos, has 8,000 people. One resort complex, Murdeira Beach, being built by an Irish Company, has 1,400 residences in its first stage alone. The company was attracted to Sal by “prices that are a fraction of those for comparable sites in Europe and the Caribbean” (Brass 2006, 20). Sal has several terrestrial protected areas and one marine natural reserve, Baia da Murdeira. One area, the Salt Marsh of Pedra Lume, is on the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites (UNESCO 2006c). It is unclear what impacts the new development will have on these areas, or on the migratory birds that use the island as a stopover site. Also, the islands have meager and erratic rainfall and periodic droughts. Although a desalting plant is planned, many of the hotels and second homes have swimming pools and are notorious consumers of water. Similar developments are being built or planned elsewhere on Sal and on four other islands in the archipelago (CVP 2006).

Research on sustainable tourism has found that such “enclave tourism” and similar developments often have hidden economic and social costs, especially in poorer countries (UNEP 2001). Cape Verde’s 421,000 people have a per capita income equivalent to only U.S. $6,000. Overgrazing and introduced species have already caused severe loss of natural habitats and stressed a number of endemic plant and animal species (Stuart 1990, 65-66).

China: Hong Kong’s Country and Marine Parks

Hong Kong is a fine example of how pressures of urban intensification on protected areas can be resisted.

In the preface to his book Above the World: Stunning Satellite Images from above Earth, Sir Ranulph Fiennes (2005) describes widespread evidence of environmental damage around the globe, but makes special note of Hong Kong, “which glows at the space cameras in the orange hue that denotes fertile vegetation.” Indeed, in Hong Kong, where 7 million people live in an area of little more than 1,000 sq km, some 40% of the land is in protected areas, as well as much of the marine environment. This is one of the best illustrations in the world of how natural areas can thrive within or right next to dense cities.

The urbanized parts of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, are among the most crowded areas in the world. The city is a thriving business and financial center whose population is projected to grow to 8.7 million by 2050. There is constant demand to open up more land for urban development.

How has this pressure been successfully resisted? First of all, Hong Kong has strong land-use planning and regulation. This is essential, but certainly not enough by itself; many other places have regulations that look good in print but are not enforced. According to Fook Yee Wong, head of Hong Kong’s Country and Marine Parks, the key has been fostering a sense of community ownership by organizing citizen volunteers to carry out projects ranging from nature education to park clean-up; by involving NGOs, including those represented on government advisory bodies; by providing information to the public via publications, signage, and the Internet; and, not least, by encouraging his own staff to love nature (Wong 2005, 58-61). A citizens’ support group, Friends of the Country Parks, while recognizing that Hong Kong in many respects “already does very well” believes “a comprehensive conservation policy would assist the preservation and management of biodiversity” (Dudgeon and Corlett 2004, 262).

Web sites: Hong Kong Country and Marine Parks: http://www.afcd.gov.hk (Cantonese/English). Friends of the Country Parks: http://www.focp.org.hk (Cantonese/English). 

Kiribati: Impacts of dense population on a small scale

In island countries that are small in both land area and population, migration into towns from outlying areas can concentrate sewage, garbage, and toxic waste. Where there are inadequate means of disposing of it, this can have serious impacts on biodiversity. Tarawa Atoll in the island Republic of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean is an extreme example (Connell and Lea 2002, 41, 180-185). Surrounded by a coral reef that was damaged during a major battle in World War II and subsequently by pollution and construction, Tarawa includes some of the most densely populated islands in the world. These include Betio islet, which has a land area of 1.7 sq km and a population density of over 7,000 per sq km, more than that of Hong Kong (Taoaba 2006). Although about half of Tarawa Atoll has been declared a conservation area, it is not clear whether regulations have been issued or enforced (FAO 2002). It is also unclear what measures are being taken to manage waste and prevent further damage to the reef from urban pollution. The country has limited resources (per capita income is equivalent to U.S. $1,900 a year).

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