Tourism, protected areas and the World Parks Congress : fundamental lessons, new horizons and promising directions

Significant social, economic, political and environmental changes occurring across the world pose a growing set of extraordinary challenges and opportunities to protected areas. Addressing these challenges and opportunities requires building broad constituencies of support at different spatial scales. While civil society increasingly recognizes the contributions of tourism to developing and sustaining the values held in parks and other protected areas, the conservation of biological diversity and the protection of cultural heritage remain key elements of park and park tourism management. This book documents the contributions, challenges, and issues confronting a growing international tourism industry that is based on the values found within parks and other protected areas. Through presentations, discussions and deliberations at the 2003 World Parks Congress, delegates identified a stewardship agenda for the future. The foundation of knowledge about the relationship between tourism and biodiversity conservation was expanded and deepened at the conference. The most important findings and concepts with regard to park tourism that emerged at the World Parks Congress (WPC) are found in the papers contained in this book

The impact of conservation on the status of the world's vertebrates

Using data for 25,780 species categorized on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, we present an assessment of the status of the world's vertebrates. One-fifth of species are classified as Threatened, and we show that this figure is increasing: On average, 52 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians move one category closer to extinction each year. However, this overall pattern conceals the impact of conservation successes, and we show that the rate of deterioration would have been at least one-fifth again as much in the absence of these. Nonetheless, current conservation efforts remain insufficient to offset the main drivers of biodiversity loss in these groups: agricultural expansion, logging, overexploitation, and invasive alien species