1st Edition
Leaving Space for Nature The Critical Role of Area-Based Conservation
This book provides the first contemporary assessment of area-based conservation and its implications for nature and society.
Now covering 15 per cent of the land surface and a growing area of ocean, the creation of protected areas is one of the fastest conscious changes in land management in history. But this has come at a cost, including a backlash from human rights organisations about the social impacts of protected areas. At the same time, a range of new types of area-based conservation has emerged, based on indigenous people’s territories, local community lands and a new designation of “other effective area-based conservation measures”. This book provides a concise overview of the status and possible futures of area-based conservation. With many people calling for half the earth’s land surface to remain in a natural condition, this book taps into the urgent debate about the feasibility of such an aim and the ways in which such land might be managed. It provides a timely contribution by people who have been at the centre of the debate for the last twenty years. Building on the authors’ large personal knowledge, the book draws on global case studies where the authors have firsthand experience, including Yosemite National Park (USA), Blue Mountains National Park (Australia), Bwindi National Park (Uganda), Chingaza National Park (Colombia), Ustyart Plateau (Kazakhstan), Snowdonia National Park (Wales) and many more.
This book is essential reading for students, academics and practitioners interested in conservation and its impact on society.
PART 1. SETTING THE SCENE 1. A vision for area-based conservation 2. What are we aiming for? 3. A brief history of the modern protected area movement PART 2. WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED SO FAR 4. Agreeing what we mean by area-based conservation 5. Deciding where protected areas should be located 6. Setting targets for conservation 7. How much area is already set aside for conservation? PART 3. WHY THIS IS NOT ENOUGH 8. The needs for area-based conservation: countering threats 9. The needs for area-based conservation: maximising ecosystem services 10. Effectiveness of the existing estate 11. The Costs PART 4. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? 12. Leaving Space for Nature: What next?
Biography
Nigel Dudley is a consultant ecologist who has worked with international organisations, including WWF International, IUCN and UNESCO. He is co-founder of Equilibrium Research and an industry fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland, Australia. Nigel is the author/editor of numerous titles, including Arguments for Protected Areas (Routledge, 2010) and Authenticity in Nature (Routledge, 2011).
Sue Stolton co-founded Equilibrium Research with Nigel Dudley thirty years ago. She works mainly on issues relating to protected areas, including management of protected areas and the wider values and benefits that protected areas offer. Sue is vice chair of the WCPA specialist group on privately protected areas and nature stewardship.
"Now Nigel and Sue have consolidated much of their experience, and the knowledge of the many colleagues whose work they have read, or collaborated with, in this impressive synthesis of the current state of the art of protected areasplanning and management. They draw on a wide range of first-hand experiences from around the world to illustrate the points they make, while returning again and again to their home between the Welsh mountains and coast to "ground truth" their observations. As always, the writing is lucid and the story highly readable. They feel passionately about the subject but they are commendably balanced in how they address such thorny issues as the rights of Indigenous peoples in respect of the natural resources upon which their livelihoods depend." — Adrian Phillips, Parks Journal, Issue 26.1
