[enviro-vlc] Human well-being better in a better protected environment: WWF

[Vern Weitzel]

http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=134521

Human well-being better in a better protected environment: WWF

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SafetyNet: Protected areas and poverty reduction [pdf, 6.14 MB]
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/safety_net_final.pdf

Degraded environments, limited lives. Deforestation, erosion and damaged water 
bodies show where a lack of integrated environmental management leads.
© WWF-Canon / Helena TELKÄNRANTA

People are part of the landscape too, and their lives can improve along with 
their environments, as here in Central America
© WWF Central America / Cinthya Flores
24 May 2008
Bonn, May 22, 2008 – Well planned and managed protected areas can play a key 
role in reducing poverty, with the relationship strengthened when well-being is 
measured as more than just income, according to a new analysis by WWF.

SafetyNet:protected areas and poverty reduction, prepared with the assistance of 
the environmental research group Equilibrium, uses new tools to analyse what 
works and what doesn't in improving both human well-being and environmental 
quality, finding that community involvement, benefit sharing and consideration 
of protected areas in overall landscapes are crucial factors to consider.

“Poverty is much more than not having enough money. Not having enough to eat, or 
access to medicines or a clean water supply are the fundamentals which really 
define poverty at its most basic level,” said Liza Higgins-Zogib, Manager of 
People and Conservation at WWF International.

“We live in a world where half of the six billion population live not just on 
minimal incomes but most are in rural areas depending a great deal on natural 
resources for their nutrition, shelter, health and nutrition. It is vital that 
we appreciate that the right type of well managed protected areas can make all 
the difference to the lives of those people.”

The report’s analysis draws from management effectiveness assessments of over 
1000 protected areas and developed a new tool to assess protected area benefits 
in detail in case studies drawn from Argentina, Finland, Malaysia, Mongolia, 
Nepal, Poland and Tanzania.

“Safety Net: protected areas and poverty reduction” provides the largest body of 
evidence yet of a strong link between well managed protected areas such as 
national parks and reserves and increased levels of food, medicine, water and 
cultural and spiritual fulfilment for people living in the surrounding areas, 
including some of the world’s poorest.

On Apo Island in the Philippines, the establishment of protected areas covering 
reefs and shorelines increased the average fish catch from 0.15 kg/person hour 
in 1980-81 to 1-2 kg/person hour in 1997-2001. Tourism revenues from the reef 
are now estimated at $US 500 per hectare per year and 75 per cent of tourist 
fees go to the local community.

In China's Baimaxueshan Nature Reserve, incomes from sustainable mushroom 
harvesting in the park have risen 5 to 10 fold in the 70 villages participating 
in the scheme while for 10,000 people in and around Mairauà State Ecological 
Station in Brazil incomes have increased by 50 per cent and in some cases by 99 
per cent following the introduction of a park-based Economic Alternatives 
Programme. Infant mortality has declined by 53 percent with better health 
education and water quality.

Although the report stresses that every protected area is unique, the most 
successful in terms of the benefit they provided to poor people sought to 
balance conservation and poverty reduction, established direct and integrated 
links between the needs of people and nature and recognized that trade-offs 
between human and wildlife needs needed to be negotiated.

In these cases, environmental and development outcomes were well monitored and 
protected areas were viewed, not in isolation, but as parts of the overall 
landscape.

“It is all too easy to over-simplify the relationship between poverty and 
protected areas, but this report makes a significant contribution to separating 
myth from reality,” Higgins-Zogib said. “It is clear from this research that 
protected areas can and do lift many people above the most basic levels of 
poverty, but the report also reveals that protected areas set up or managed 
without enough care for human needs can have the opposite effect on the lives of 
poor people.

“It is vital that those involved in establishing and managing protected areas 
remember that people are also part of the landscape.”

For further information:

Liza Higgins-Zogib, Manager People and Conservation, WWF International, +41 
763777283, lhiggins-zogib at wwfint.org



Notes to editors

This report is part of WWF’s “Arguments for Protection” series which includes 
the following reports: Running Pure explores the links between protected areas 
and water; Beyond Belief explores the links between protected areas and the 
world’s major faiths; Food Stores explores the links between protected areas and 
the security of major food crops and Natural Security, which explores the 
importance of protected areas to mitigate the impact of major “natural” 
disasters. A new website dedicated to this series comes on line on 24 May at 
www.panda.org/protection/arguments



About WWF

WWF, the global conservation organization, is one of the world's largest and 
most respected independent conservation organizations. WWF has a global network 
active in over 100 countries with almost 5 million supporters.



WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and 
to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the 
world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural 
resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful 
consumption.