Our Planet Volume 14 No 2 The magazine of the United Nations Environment Programme WORLD HERITAGE AND PROTECTED AREAS Mwai Kibaki Biological backbone Nelson R. Mandela and Her Majesty Queen Noor Benefits beyond boundaries Timothy E. Wirth Common inheritance Yolanda Kakabadse Beauty or beast? Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Claude Martin Parks and participation Kenton Miller and Achim Steiner Scorecard, catalyst, watershed Our Planet www.ourplanet.com 21 Coral jewels Melinda Kimble, Vice President for Program, United Nations Foundation 22 Reef knots Mark Collins, Director of the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre Millan/UNEP/Topham 24Brief window for biodiversity Russell A. Mittermeier, President of 3 Editorial 9 Beauty or beast? Conservation International, and Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director, Yolanda Kakabadse, President of Gustavo A.B. da Fonseca, Executive UNEP IUCN–The World Conservation Union Vice President 4 Biological backbone 10 Wonders of the world 26 Books and products HE Hon Mwai Kibaki MP, EGH, Seema Paul, Senior Program Officer President and Commander-in-Chief for Biodiversity, United Nations 27 Conservation amid conflict of the Armed Forces of the Republic Foundation Eulalie Bashige Baliruhya, Director of Kenya General of the Congolese Institute for 11 Protecting heritage Nature Conservation 7 Benefits beyond boundaries Francesco Bandarin, Director of Nelson R. Mandela and HM Queen the UNESCO World Heritage Noor, patrons of the Vth IUCN World Centre Parks Congress 13 People 8 Common inheritance Timothy E. Wirth, President of the 14 Parks and participation United Nations Foundation Chief Emeka Anyaoku, President of WWF International, and Dr Claude Gieseler/UNEP/Topham Martin, Director General of WWF International 28 News 16 At a glance: Protected areas 29 Green, red or black? Djuna Ivereigh, journalist, Indonesia 18 Profile: Harrison Ford Internationally renowned actor and 30 Keeping faith with nature conservationist Victoria Finlay, media consultant for the Alliance of Religions and 19 Scorecard, catalyst, watershed Conservation Kenton Miller, Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, 32 Make parks not war and Achim Steiner, IUCN Director Rebecca M. Nyabato, student at the General University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Vera Tammy Caudy/UNEP/Topham Tammy 20 Coral Reef Fund Okatsa, Kenya Our Planet, This issue of Our Planet has been made possible by the generosity of the United Nations Foundation/Better the magazine of the World Fund. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP, the United Nations Foundation or the Tel (2542) 621 234; fax 623 927; telex 22068 UNEP KE editors, nor are they an official record. The designations employed and the presentation do not imply the expression of any e-mail: [email protected] opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP or the UN Foundation concerning the legal status of any country, territory or city or www.unep.org its authority, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. ISSN 1013-7394 The non-copyrighted contents of this magazine may be reprinted without charge provided that Our Planet and the author or photographer concerned are credited as the source and the editors are notified in writing and sent a voucher copy. 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Printed in the United Kingdom This magazine is printed using vegetable-based inks on paper made from 100 per cent recycled waste material. It Front cover: Mark Lericchia/UNEP/Topham is bleached without any damage to the environment. 2 Our Planet 1872 of Yellowstone National Park in are working well to conserve water- the United States, the number of ways, wildlife upon which local people protected areas has mushroomed to depend for food and medicines, and more than 102,000 covering over 18.8 other so called ‘ecosystem services’. million square kilometres, or more The challenge is to link them more than 12.6 per cent of the Earth’s land widely into the broader thrust of surface. It is an area bigger than India sustainable development so that good and China combined. Protected areas management does not remain isolated cover an area greater than that under but guides the management of land permanent arable crops. Meanwhile beyond the borders of parks and the number of specially safeguarded reserves. Here we will need greater natural World Heritage sites has awareness and bolder, stronger climbed to 149 worldwide. partnerships between local people and communities including indi- Key targets genous people, local, regional and But the story is not over and there is national governments, donors and still much to do. Currently less than organizations like UNEP and IUCN– UNEP 1 per cent of the marine environment The World Conservation Union. is under protected area status. Given From the desk of the importance of the coastal zone for Income generation fisheries and tourism, this is a failing The ability of protected areas to help KLAUS TOEPFER we must urgently address – not least the fight against poverty and deliver United Nations because establishing an effective sustainable development cannot be Under-Secretary-General system of marine protected areas by overestimated. 2015 is among the key targets and Costa Rica’s protected areas, for and Executive Director, timetables in the Plan of Imple- example, help to generate well over UNEP mentation of the 2002 World Summit $300 million from tourism every on Sustainable Development (WSSD). year. Within three years of St Lucia’s Other crucial issues on the table fishing grounds being listed as ‘no this September at the Vth IUCN take zones’ in 1995, commercially World Parks Congress in Durban, important stocks had doubled in the f you have a moment, and wonder Republic of South Africa, include how adjacent waters, generating valuable about whether listing important to improve financing so as to improve exports for the country and a source of Itracts of land as World Heritage management of protected areas, important protein for its people. sites and putting other areas under particularly in developing countries. Meanwhile the United Nations protection is worthwhile, then flick Delegates are also focusing on Africa Foundation – whose sister body, the through our latest Global Environment and the environmental component Better World Fund, has generously Outlook to page 149. of the New Partnership for African sponsored this issue of Our Planet Here, satellite images of Iguazu Development. One key issue is the – has become the first funding National Park in Argentina on the damage being caused by alien species organization to designate the elite border with Brazil – covering 1973 such as water hyacinth, Nile cabbage World Heritage sites as the explicit and 2000 – present a compelling and the Kariba weed: some experts focus of its biodiversity work. The argument. estimate that the damage to Africa’s increased resources and vigour that On the right of a squiggly black line wetlands alone – in dwindling fish- it has brought to safeguarding them marking the frontier of the Park – eries for example – may be running offers hope that there will be more in the protected area of this World into billions of dollars annually. success stories like the Iguazu Heritage site – much of one of the last National Park I remnants of the highly endangered Major contributions Paranaense forest remains intact: it is UNEP's World Conservation Moni- YOUR VIEWS a haven for 68 species of mammals, toring Centre is making two major We would really like to receive your 38 of reptiles and 18 of amphibians, contributions to the Congress: the feedback on the issues raised in this many of which are threatened or United Nations List of Protected edition of Our Planet. Please either vulnerable. On the left – in the un- Areas, and a draft assessment e-mail [email protected] or protected area – heavy logging and entitled the State of the World's write to: land clearance have denuded it. The Protected Areas. Feedback, Our Planet modern growth of protected areas We are also concerned that pro- 27 Devonshire Road across the world is one of the environ- tected areas could become islands in Cambridge CB1 2BH mental movement’s great success a sea of environmental degradation, United Kingdom stories. From the establishment in even where – as in many regions – they 3 Our Planet poverty. In the Environmental Man- agement and Coordination Act, Biological BACKBONE Parliament has ensured that: ‘Every person in Kenya is entitled to a MWAI KIBAKI describes the challenges of managing clean and healthy environment and protected areas in Africa and