PROTECTED AREAS FOR THE 21ST-CENTURY - WORKING TO PROVIDE BENEFITS TOSOCIETY

Since the first national park was created at Yellowstone in the USA in 1872, over 8500 protected areas have been established worldwide. Virt ually all countries have seen the wisdom of protecting areas of outsta nding importance to society, and such sites now cover over 5% of Earth 's land surface. However, many of these protected areas exist only on paper, not on the ground. Most are suffering from a combination of thr eats, including pollution, over-exploitation, encroachment, poaching, and many others. In a period of growing demands on resources and shrin king government budgets, new approaches are required to ensure that pr otected areas can continue to make their contributions to society. Fir st and foremost, protected areas must be designed and managed in order to provide tangible and intangible benefits to society. This will inv olve integrating protected areas into larger planning and management f rameworks, linking protected areas to biodiversity and climate change, promoting greater financial support for protected areas, and expandin g international cooperation in the finance, development and management of protected areas.