Biodiversity Conservation in Transboundary Protected Areas (1996) / Chapter Skim
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2 Biodiversity Conservation in the Participating Countries
2 Biodiversity Conservation in the Participating Countries
Pages 55-106
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From page 57... ...
THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE The United States has a long history of and commitment to environmental protection, with some of the World's most comprehensive and advanced programs for controlling pollution, protecting public lands, and enforcing environmental laws. The grown of this commitment reflects the settlement of the United States.
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From page 58... ...
Clearly American society had established a new and quite different set of values related to public lands and resource management, and it adopted a new paradigm of what constituted a reasonable, prudent approach to land management. This conservation paradigm was embodied by the concept of wise use.
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From page 59... ...
Efforts to develop the framework Convention on Biological Diversity were launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in May 1989 when the Goveming Council of the UNEP unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by the United States to begin negotiations on an international convention to conserve biological diversity.
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From page 60... ...
THE CURRENT CONSERVATION FRAMEWORK With this historical background, it is easy to see that the United States has a long history of environmental protection, with some of the World's most comprehensive and advanced programs for controlling pollution, protecting public lands and enforcing environmental laws. The first 100 years of conservation tradition has resulted in an evolving framework to help manage and conserve biological resources in the United States for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations that consists of: Reducing habitat loss by using land and water more productively and efficiently, implementing programs to reduce wetland conversion, and purchasing sensitive and threatened areas.
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From page 61... ...
1994~. Yet, threatened and endangered species represent only one aspect of a larger issue: conservation of the full variety of life, from genetic variation in species populations to the richness of ecosystems in the biosphere (Salwasser 1990~.
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From page 62... ...
Federal land management agencies in the United States have increasingly come under fire over management decisions that appear to decrease biodiversity. The dispute over the spotted owl and old growth forests is the most visible example of how tough it is to blend the conservation of biodiversity with over uses and values of public resources.
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From page 63... ...
Ecosystem management is an identifying name tag for a new and evolving approach to land management. For practical purposes it is generally synonymous with sustainable development, sustainable management, sustainable forestry and a number of other terms being used to identify an ecological approach to land and resource management.
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From page 64... ...
There are four basic operating tenets that provide an "umbrella" for an ecosystem management approach. Under this umbrella are a number of components which are all driven or related in some degree to participation, collaboration, using the best science, and following an ecological approach.
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From page 65... ...
· Develop information about a variety of species habitat needs. · Develop information about ecological processes, including the carbon cycle, nutrient cycle, hydrologic cycle, succession, biological diversity, population dynamics.
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From page 66... ...
Use highly participatory process from basic data collection through monitoring and involve all the publics that want to be included. Seek and form as many partnerships as possible with federal, state, local, and other organizations in doing ecosystem management.
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From page 67... ...
Public lands and resources will continue to be a focal point for diversive opinions, interests, and values. Ecosystem management will not remove controversy.
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From page 68... ...
1994. Conserving Biological Diversity through Ecosystem Management.
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From page 69... ...
1991. The Management Context for Conserving Biological Diversity.
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From page 70... ...
and in accordance with UNEP guidelines; and lastly on the tasks that Poland faces, and the way in which it intends to deal with them. SECTION I Poland has a long and distinguished tradition in the fields of biology, ecology, and nature conservation.
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From page 71... ...
Four of these have been enacted by parliament, and two are closely linked to the protection of biodiversity: The Statute on Nature Conservation of October 16tb 1991 and The Statute on Forests of September 28th 1992. The need for a strategy for ecological development was realized some years ago and the Department of Environmental Protection started work on an appropriate policy in the late 1980s.
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From page 72... ...
The concept of the Largescale System of Protected Areas details the present state of nature conservation and the plans for the future (Kozlowski 1992~. It is founded upon elements with different protective regimes, including: National Parks, Nature Reserves, Landscape Parks, Areas of Protected Landscape, the protective zones around spas, protected watersheds, and areas protecting groundwater.
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From page 73... ...
The are also other existing programs, such as for the National Parks and for wetland areas, as well as projects for the drainage basins of individual rivers. These will not be discussed here because of their highly detailed nature.
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From page 74... ...
In Poland, it was the first summary which combined knowledge of biological diversity with attempts at an economic assessment of its value (1991~. The National Foundation for Environmental Protection was recommended by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources, and Forestry to take on this task, which was far from easy on account of its multi-disciplinary character.
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From page 75... ...
The sites of in situ protection; 1. Retention in an intact state biodiversity; of high endemism; National Parks, reserves, Landscape or raising of biodiversity habitats and valuable species; Parks, protected zones values natural and little transformed forest and marsh ecosystems, rare plans communities etc.
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From page 76... ...
New research projects have appeared, including one on the preparation of the methodology for analysis of biodiversity on the basis of satellite photographs, as well as an attempt at working out ways in which an evaluation can be given regarding the benefits and costs of improving the quality of the environment and costs of nature protection. Work has begun on the creation of the appropriate databases, and a program for the monitoring of living natural resources has been established (Symonides, ed.
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From page 77... ...
( Evaluation 1 1 Actions for conservation and sustainable use o FIGURE 1 Context within which the Country Study Process Contributes to the Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity
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From page 78... ...
Benefits, and Unmet Needs of Biological Diversity Conservation; National Foundation for Environmental Protection, Warsaw 1991 (Polish version - Polish Case Study of Biological Diversity; NFEP, Warsaw 1993) Biodiversity Country Studies, Synthesis Report; UNEP, Nairobi, 1992 Gliwicz, J..
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From page 79... ...
A Strategy for the Protection of Living Natural Resources in Poland; Department of Studies of the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 1991. A Strategy for Spatial Management in the Functional Area "The Green Lungs of Poland"; Warsaw 1992.
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From page 80... ...
, 56 species of bryophyta, 53 species of lichens, 58 species of fungi, and more than 100 species and sub-species of animals are included in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.
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From page 81... ...
, 3 biosphere reserves (159,585 ha) , 3 national parks (123,200 ha)
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From page 82... ...
and a broad net of various categories of protected territories are organized in the Carpathians for preserving unique and valuable landscapes, ecosystems, and biological diversity. There are a few transboundary regions in the Carpa~ians where common ecological investigations are carried out and must be continued in the filture.
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From page 83... ...
The East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve was created in 1993 on the basis of the Polish national and landscape parks (108,924 ha) and the Slovak East Carpathian protected landscape (40,601 ha)
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From page 84... ...
. It is known that biosphere reserves have multi-functional importance.
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From page 85... ...
There are many cultural monuments (wooden churches, old cemeteries, wood-and-stone crosses, old wooden houses, etc.) on Be territory of He biosphere reserve.
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From page 86... ...
The conservation of biological diversity of animals and plants is therefore an acute problem. The necessity of preserving the flora and fauna, biological diversity, and purity of gene pool became greater after the Chernobyl disaster (April, 1986)
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From page 87... ...
Coenotic and ecosystem approaches of biodiversity preservation have been used in the development of the General Plan of Protected Territories. There are now three Nature Reserves (Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve, Pripyatsky Landscape Hydrological Reserve, and Polessky RadioEcological Reserve)
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From page 88... ...
One of the main points of the World Nature Protection Strategy is the inclusion of all biogeographic provinces into a nature reserves network, for instance, Biosphere Reserves. European nature reserve territories should be linked by the international network of "migratory channels" (Fight.
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From page 89... ...
Biodiversity Protection Strategy in the Republic of Belarus 89 · Absence of an ecologically minded culture, particularly in the citizens in the local nature reserves. Only the solution of these problems will stimulate the preservation of natural biodiversity in Belarus.
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From page 90... ...
/ f .8 .: ~: at?
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From page 91... ...
This is also illustrated by the fact that this subject is addressed in the special Convention on Biological Diversity presented for signing at the aforementioned Rio conference.
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From page 92... ...
l/1995 of the Code of Law on State Nature Protection, they also have international statutory protection. The TANAP and part of the East Carpathians CHKO are Biosphere Reserves within the framework of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Program, while the inundation area of the Morava River is a wetland of international importance
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From page 93... ...
In accordance with an Agreement on cooperation signed by the ministers responsible for nature protection, proposals were signed to link the above frontier territories to form Biosphere Reserves. In 1992, the International Coordination Council of the Man and Biosphere Program approved the proposals, and an international Biosphere Reserve was created.
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From page 94... ...
A special part of the institutional support program, and of the project as a whole, is the Small Grants Program for non-governmental nature conservation organizations in Slovakia. From the standpoint of the utilization of financial resources, this is the only part of the project that is "open" in the sense of not being limited territorially.
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From page 95... ...
The Carrying Capacity A very important task in planning and management is to determine the carrying capacity of an area, i.e., the acceptable number of visitors to protected areas or parts of them from the standpoint of the ecological impact, protection of local culture, and protection of the tourist him/herself. The Small Grants Program The small grants program is designed to catalyze and promote activities among non-governmental organizations oriented towards nature protection, alternative and traditional relations between man and society and nature, the sustainable utilization of natural resources, and the prevention of damage to elements of nature.
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From page 96... ...
In the area of Biodiversity protection, it will be oriented towards supporting countries in meeting their obligations under the Convention on Biodiversity and above all in preparing their national Biodiversity protection strategies. We believe that Slovakia will be successful in its application for a grant in this phase as well.
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From page 97... ...
Belovezhskaya Pushcha has contributed much to the restoration of He European bison, a unique animal species in He area. It is one of the most representative protected areas with regard to the biological diversity of plants and animals in the forest zone of Europe.
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From page 98... ...
, it has become clear that the status and activity of the hunting reserve is inconsistent with the main role of Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a model and reserve of nature and that substantial degradation of this natural complex has occurred as a result. Contrary to scientific recommendations and the requirement of a hunting reserve project, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha area supports a high density of hooved game (wild boar, red and roe deer)
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From page 99... ...
Such potentially conflicting interests force us to divide the area into several zones with different conservation regimes, in a manner that follows the principles set out for Biosphere Reserves. Given the real situation and the necessity to give complete protection to the largest possible area, three zones have been identified within Belovezhskaya Pushcha State National Park: a core zone under absolute protection, a protected zone, and a buffer zone.
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From page 100... ...
To solve the general problem, in view of the biological characteristics of each type of ungulate (reproduction, horns, etc.) , it is suggested that animals be culled by different methods and on different dates (for more detail refer to "Scientific Grounds of Controlling the Number of Wild Animals in Belovezhskaya Pushcha," approved by the Scientific Board of the Institute of Zoology, Academy of Sciences of Belarus)
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From page 101... ...
CONCLUSIONS In achieving the general aim of conserving the biodiversity of Belovezhskaya Pushcha as a transboundary protected area, the following strategic problems can be distinguished: Interstate problems (the conservation and management of protected objects by the international community) should be resolved at the level of the governments of Belarus and Poland; National problems (~e perfection of the management structure and the optimization of the status of protected areas)
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From page 102... ...
102 Biodiversity Conservation in the Participating Countries . Research-management and scientific problems (the development of joint research projects, the unification of research methodologies, and joint research which takes into consideration the characteristics of the Polish and Belarusian parts of Belovezhskaya Pushcha)
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From page 103... ...
The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro also brought into everyday use the new term "biodiversity," a topic which at the same time became the subject of one of the most important environmental conventions ever written, the Convention on Biological Diversity. There is no doubt as to the need for this Convention, but many questions have arisen regarding how to put its recommendations into practice.
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From page 104... ...
Having 40 years of socialist history and associated economic problems, the country still has relatively well-preserved natural ecosystems, which is partially reflected in the fact that (as of January 1, 1993) areas protected by the national Nature Conservation Act (including their buffer zones)
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From page 105... ...
On the policy level, biodiversity protection strategies should include the following: Canging economic criteria to reflect the effectiveness of the use of natural resources considering their regeneration capability; · Analyzing the effectiveness of alternative land uses from the long-term perspective (this is extremely important, especially in this region and in a period when new owners are making decisions on the future use of their land) ; Determining the social and cultural value of species and ecosystems and including this information in economic analyses; Changing legal and economic tools to stimulate ecologically-sound ways of using natural resources; Promoting intensive biocentrically-oriented environmental education based on the idea that economic grown is part of a country's development and not its main goal; Changing the common view that conservation activities are of interest to a small group of strange people and promoting Be understanding that conservation is a modern and interdisciplinary applied science comprising not only biological knowledge, but also economic analyses and ethical .
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From page 106... ...
106 Biodiversity Conservation in the Participating Countries The protection and sustainable use of biodiversity are new economic and ecological principles, principles which must become an inseparable part of policy at both the national and international levels. It must be the ethic of the third millennium.
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