The number of protected areas globally has exceeded 200,000 and now covers over 14 per cent terrestrially and just over 1 per cent of the world’s oceans. There is a global agreement for further expansion by 2020 to 17 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. This burgeoning protected estate is symptomatic of the world’s recognition that there is value in protected areas. The principal purpose is of course conserving biodiversity. Achieving this primary objective is obligatory for a protected area, but there are many other benefits derived from a well-managed protected area.
For example, a protected area with ecological integrity yields clean water. Over a third of the most populous cities of the world depend on water flowing from an adjoining protected area. Without this ecosystem service, the cost of water treatment would be debilitating for many of these cities. Then, on the climate change front, a cautious estimate is that there is at least 15 per cent of the world’s carbon stored within protected areas. Protected areas, a stable long-term land use, do not contribute to the 20 per cent of emissions originating from land use conversions. Marine protected areas keep yielding evidence of their usefulness for stocking adjoining areas and thus assuring a continued sustainable fishery. Coastal protected areas are effective in preventing erosion and severe effects from storms and indeed even tsunamis. Landslides are prevented. The genetic stock of crops is conserved. Where spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic values occur in a protected area, they uplift the human spirit. The list of benefits can go on and on.
Let me now focus on this book and its chapters that lead us to better understand another benefit of a set of specialized protected areas. These are transboundary protected areas that adjoining jurisdictions have agreed to establish and in many cases jointly manage. The benefits enumerated above apply equally to these areas but the transboundary areas have an additional importance. They yield evidence of a common purpose among people with a different background, form of government, and often culture. These areas represent an overcoming of human selfishness and a willingness of working together for a higher value than the pedestrian “what is in it for me.” Nature protected beyond one’s boundary is a clear outcome. In some cases, these areas celebrate existing peaceful co-existence and others are proposed as a wish for such in the future. Each chapter in this book has been selected to explore in depth the intricacies of the establishment and the benefits of these areas. Lessons learned are shared and challenges are enumerated.
I congratulate the authors and the editors of this book. It contains the latest views of authorities on the subject of transboundary protected areas and will serve students and professionals alike.
Nikita Lopoukhine, Chair
IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas