[Environment Report]:World Parks Congress


This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English EnvironmentReport.

Three-thousand activists, scientists, community leaders andgovernment officials attended the fifth World Parks Congress. Theten-day conference ended last week in Durban, South Africa. It isheld every ten years by the World Conservation Union.

Delegates learned of success in meeting a goal to expandprotected areas. More than ten percent of the surface of Earth isnow officially protected. A World Conservation Union official saidthis progress was the result of agreements at the last congress, inCaracas, Venezuela.

But an official of Conservation International called the systemfar from complete. He said tropical islands especially face a severethreat from expanding populations of humans. Less than one percentof the area of the world's oceans is protected.

Delegates approved thirty-two proposals in the Durban Accord andAction Plan. The measures are designed to support three basic ideas.One is the importance of gaining the cooperation of people who livenear protected areas. Another is the recognition that protectedareas do more than protect species. They also provide services tothe environment like clean water.

And the third idea is to recognize that administrators ofprotected areas need guidance, training and other tools to reachtheir goals.

Some nations announced plans to increase the amount of protectedareas. Madagascar announced plans for a major increase. Senegaldeclared its first protected areas for fisheries and other marinelife.

And the Brazilian state of Amapa said it is linking protectedareas to form a new ten-million kilometer area. It will cover theworld's largest tropical rainforest park, and will be a littlelarger than Portugal.

Other announcements were also made in Durban. South Africa, forexample, said it would excuse protected areas from land taxes. Thispast April, South Africa announced plans to establish five newnational parks.

Other groups at the meeting promised money, supplies or technicalexpertise for conservation efforts. The World Conservation Union,the Nature Conservancy and WWF International announced a jointeffort against forest fires. They call it a Global Fire Partnership.They say it aims to prevent the kind of destructive fires thathappened earlier this year in North America, Europe and other areasof the world.

This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by CatyWeaver. This is Bob Doughty.

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