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Global urbanization and protected areas EXECUTIVE SUMMARY |
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Global Urbanization and Protected Areas: Challenges and opportunities posed by a major factor of global change — and creative ways of responding, by Ted Trzyna. Sacramento: California Institute of Public Affairs / InterEnvironment for IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), 2007. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Locations This paper draws from experience in many countries, but focuses in detail on protected areas in parts of Kenya, South Africa, and the Californias (a binational region that includes parts of Mexico and the USA). Brief notes illustrate special problems and/or innovative solutions from Australia, Brazil, Cape Verde, China, and Kiribati. Urbanization Urbanization that affects protected areas takes several forms: urban sprawl, ribbon development, urban intensification and infill, coalescing large-scale “megapolitan” regions, tourism developments, second-home and retirement developments, growing gateway communities, growing settlements within protected areas, informal settlements, and transboundary urbanization. Impacts of urbanization on protected areas include: fragmentation of habitat, edge effects, pollution, too little or too much water, human-wildlife conflict, introduction of exotic invasive species, fire along the wildland-urban interface, crime, and minor problems with urban visitors. Background The world is urbanizing at a rapid rate. In 1950, about 30% of the world’s population lived in cities. This figure is now estimated to be 50% and is projected to rise to 61% by 2030. However, there are marked differences among world regions. Most countries in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania are highly urbanized; most of those in Africa and Asia much less so. Contrary to a commonly held belief, people living in “megacities” (those with 10 million inhabitants or more) account for less that 4% of the world’s population. Some of the fastest growing cities have relatively small populations. Protected areas can be
affected by very small, as well as larger, human settlements. There are
ecologically sensitive places where even the growth of a village could have
devastating impacts. Nature is essential to people’s well-being. For urban people, natural areas in and near cities are anchors to the Earth. Lessons learned · Realize that the answers are more political than technical. Such tools as ecosystem management, buffer zones, and regulation of privately owned land are certainly useful, but those responsible for protected areas rarely have authority to implement them alone. In any case, such methods usually don’t work well in places under pressure from urbanization unless they are accompanied by political action. Since protected area managers are usually restrained from intervening in politics, they need to make alliances with those who can. · Forge alliances. Useful for many reasons, alliances range from temporary coalitions to formal partnerships, to umbrella organizations that deal with a broad range of issues. Some potential allies are obvious (other conservation agencies and conservation NGOs), others less so. Talks aimed at forming alliances should begin as early as possible. Multipurpose projects are a good way of building long-term partnerships. · Encourage social entrepreneurs. People with entrepreneurial skills are essential to making partnerships work and carrying out creative ideas. Such people need to be identified, encouraged, and supported. These agents of change are not always vocal “leaders”; they often like to keep low profiles. · Help and engage your neighbors. Urban neighbors are much more likely to help protected areas if protected areas help their urban neighbors. Urban neighbors should be regarded as partners, and encouraged to act that way. · Engage political and community leaders. Such leaders include not only officials of all levels of government, but also heads of businesses, universities, and civic associations, as well as opinion leaders, especially members of the press. Organized visits are effective ways of showing leaders the resources, opportunities offered, and problems faced by protected areas in urban and urbanizing settings. In working with decision-makers, benefits should be quantified as much as possible, and words should be chosen carefully, e.g., “ecological services” may have more appeal than “biodiversity.” · Educate and engage the public. Over the long term, the most important things that can be done to cope with urbanization are educating the public at large about the impacts of urbanization on protected areas, and engaging them in finding and carrying out solutions. · Educate conservation colleagues. The doctrines and priorities of protected area agencies typically relate to the hinterlands. Leaders of conservation agencies and NGOs need to be educated about the special problems faced by protected areas in urban and urbanizing situations, as well as the special opportunities offered by urban protected areas. Not least among these opportunities is strengthening support among urban voters for large-scale conservation. · Give special attention to immigrants. Many of the world’s cities have become magnets for immigrants from other countries. Newcomers are often unfamiliar with the natural environments of their new homes, environments that can differ radically from their places of origin. · Demonstrate good environmental behavior. Promote by example such sustainable practices as recycling, green building, and solar energy. · Bypass the local establishment if you must. Local officials are often unwilling or unable to stand up to urban sprawl. Action by higher levels of government may be necessary. · Take advantage of international organizations and processes. International organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental, can provide expert advice, funding, and opportunities to exchange experience. Formal processes under intergovernmental agreements can sometimes provide remedies, e.g., concerning migratory or threatened animal species, or transboundary pollution. · Use advanced policy, management, and technical tools. Examples of such tools are satellite imagery and methods of collaboration and evaluation. · Use policy and social science research. Although protected area managers are accustomed to working with natural scientists, they can also benefit from experts in such fields as economics, public policy, management, sociology, and health. Especially useful are ongoing relationships with universities in these fields. · Help organize and participate in training and exchanges. Formal training and more international exchanges of professionals are needed. · Draw on creative people and their ideas. Writers and artists who give voice to a strong regional identity are key ingredients in standing up to urban sprawl, as are ideas and concrete examples about what is possible in specific situations. · Adapt buffer zone and wildlife corridor concepts to local circumstances. Those who succeed in creating such zones and corridors in urbanizing areas are politically skilled, adept at seizing opportunities, and know how to raise money from public and/or private sources. Although national and state or provincial governments can provide a framework, land-use decisions are essentially local and require negotiation parcel-by-parcel. Wildlife corridors have special requirements: They must be defined based on specific scientific knowledge of wildlife migration patterns. · Promote alternatives to urban sprawl. Those responsible for protected areas can work with others to create regions that are mosaics of urban, working landscape, and wild. · Take aggressive action to control invasive species. Along with urbanization often come invasive plant and animal species that can cause enormous damage to biodiversity in protected areas within a short time. Quick and aggressive responses are required. · Host “conservation nerve centers” in urban protected areas. Such centers promote cooperation and synergy among agencies and NGOs by housing their offices and providing meeting space. · Work for transparency. Almost everywhere, political influence undermines efforts to control unwise development around protected areas. Often, this influence is bought with election campaign contributions or favor-trading, if not outright bribes. In many countries, this is a very sensitive, even a dangerous issue. However, opportunities may arise to report bribery or make alliances with those who can do so. There is a growing international anti-corruption movement. · Accept that it’s probably not “already being done.” An all-too-typical response to hearing about innovative programs is “it’s already being done.” Chances are that much more could be done than is being done. Conclusions The conservation community should pay more attention to cities and urbanization. Four gaps make it difficult to do so: · The special needs of protected areas in urban and urbanizing settings are usually not well appreciated within protected area agencies, nor are the benefits such areas provide to large numbers of citizens, and the opportunities they offer to build public support for protected areas everywhere. · Separate sets of people and institutions work on urban and conservation issues. Bringing them together is difficult because they have different points of view and are unaccustomed to working with each other. · Separate sets of people and institutions tend to work on green (nature protection) and brown (pollution control) issues. In urban and urbanizing locations, such issues often coincide. · There is often a lack of trust between protected area managers and local communities, conservation NGOs, and recreational users. Urban protected areas should be a global conservation priority. Existing global criteria for priority conservation targets emphasize biodiversity. Urban protected areas may or may not meet biological criteria, but have a critical social and political role in building and sustaining public support for conservation. This is especially true of protected areas in or near cities that are political, economic, or media centers. There are no cookie-cutter solutions to the problems and opportunities posed by urbanization. Answers depend on national and local situations. However, there are many powerful and innovative ideas worth sharing. This can be done through international exchanges, telling stories of success (and failure) in depth, and holding seminar-workshops to exchange experience. This has started to happen under IUCN auspices. The importance of building awareness and understanding among leaders and the general public is recognized in the conservation movement, but how can understanding lead to action? This is the biggest challenge, and it is essentially a political one.
InterEnvironment California Institute of Public Affairs P.O. Box 189040 Sacramento, California 95818, USA Tel. (1 916) 442-2472 - Fax on request
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