Protected areas in the new millennium: challenges and opportunities

McNeely, Jeffrey A. (2001) Protected areas in the new millennium: challenges and opportunities. [Proceedings Paper]

The establishment and management of protected areas is an important strategy for conserving biodiversity in tropical Asia. Already, nearly 10% of the land area has been legally protected, though relatively few sites are managed as well as they should be. A major constraint is the limited capacity of government agencies to manage these sites so that the appropriate protection can be provided to the biological resources they contain and the ecological services they provide, and that benefits to development can be delivered. An important contributing factor is that the multiple values of protected areas are not well understood or communicated. Other contributing factors include inadequate funds, insufficient well-trained staff, the large size of many protected areas, the multitude of skills required, conflicts with local people and other stakeholders, and bureaucratic inertia. Thus the potential social, economic, and cultural benefits of protected areas are unable to be entirely realized, even as new sites are added to national protected area systems. On the other hand, a vast potential source of expertise and funds resides with corporations, NGOs, universities, local communities, private land-owners, and other members of civil society. These sectors could provide significant resources to support individual protected areas or national protected area systems, though this requires appropriate policy support and incentives from governments. A particular challenge is to determine priorities for investment of scarce resources (especially funds and staff), and the paper will explore several options for determining such priorities. If governments and the general public recognize the many economic, social, cultural, ecological, development, and political values of protected areas; if appropriate institutions are established to manage protected areas in close collaboration with other stakeholders; if sustainable economic benefits are enabled to flow to protected areas and their surrounding communities; and if information from both traditional knowledge and modern science can be mobilized to enable protected areas to adapt to changing conditions, then the protected areas of tropical Asia can be the engines for new forms of rural development that ensure a better life for all.

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Abstract

The establishment and management of protected areas is an important strategy for conserving biodiversity in tropical Asia. Already, nearly 10% of the land area has been legally protected, though relatively few sites are managed as well as they should be. A major constraint is the limited capacity of government agencies to manage these sites so that the appropriate protection can be provided to the biological resources they contain and the ecological services they provide, and that benefits to development can be delivered. An important contributing factor is that the multiple values of protected areas are not well understood or communicated. Other contributing factors include inadequate funds, insufficient well-trained staff, the large size of many protected areas, the multitude of skills required, conflicts with local people and other stakeholders, and bureaucratic inertia. Thus the potential social, economic, and cultural benefits of protected areas are unable to be entirely realized, even as new sites are added to national protected area systems. On the other hand, a vast potential source of expertise and funds resides with corporations, NGOs, universities, local communities, private land-owners, and other members of civil society. These sectors could provide significant resources to support individual protected areas or national protected area systems, though this requires appropriate policy support and incentives from governments. A particular challenge is to determine priorities for investment of scarce resources (especially funds and staff), and the paper will explore several options for determining such priorities. If governments and the general public recognize the many economic, social, cultural, ecological, development, and political values of protected areas; if appropriate institutions are established to manage protected areas in close collaboration with other stakeholders; if sustainable economic benefits are enabled to flow to protected areas and their surrounding communities; and if information from both traditional knowledge and modern science can be mobilized to enable protected areas to adapt to changing conditions, then the protected areas of tropical Asia can be the engines for new forms of rural development that ensure a better life for all.

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Item Type:	Proceedings Paper
Additional Information:	Available at Perpustakaan Sultan Abdul Samad, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43000 UPM Serdang, Malaysia. QH75 A1I61 2000 Call Number
AGROVOC Term:	protected areas
AGROVOC Term:	biodiversity
AGROVOC Term:	natural resources
AGROVOC Term:	biodiversity conservation
AGROVOC Term:	ecosystem conservation
AGROVOC Term:	non-governmental organizations
AGROVOC Term:	local communities
AGROVOC Term:	sustainable forest management
AGROVOC Term:	South East Asia
Depositing User:	Ms. Azariah Hashim
Date Deposited:	28 Jul 2025 08:30
Last Modified:	28 Jul 2025 08:30
URI:	http://webagris.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/1102

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