Environment: Saving Endangered Wildlife Also Saves Humans

By Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Mar. 21, 2006 (IPS/GIN) – Stopping the extinction of endangered species like pandas, gorillas or tigers also helps reduce poverty and improves the lives of local communities in many parts of the world, says a new report by a leading environmental group.

The study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says that the so- called “species work” to protect threatened animals and plants helps promote sustainable development in rural areas of countries such as Nepal, Uganda, India, Namibia, Costa Rica and China.

“Species are essential to human societies as cultural and religious symbols, commodities, food, fiber and transport,” said Susan Lieberman, who directs WWF’s global species program.

“Species also play a vital role in ensuring environmental services such as clean water and fertile soil,” she said.

The report’s authors argue that in many parts of the world, the dynamics that threaten wild species and natural heritage also contribute to poverty. For example, the Terai lowlands of Nepal, the floodplains of the Caprivi in Namibia, and the Afromontane forests of Uganda are all threatened by the loss of habitat and its riches, unsustainable depletion of the natural resource base, inequitable access to natural resources necessary for life, and a lack of adequate management mechanisms.

The 80-page report says that modern species conservation is therefore about conserving and managing a world for both wild species and people.

The organization criticizes the separation between the two issues in development assistance and calls for greater public awareness of the inter-dependency of wildlife, ecosystems and anti-poverty efforts.

“Biodiversity conservation and management are still marginalized in development frameworks and funding,” says the report.

“This is particularly true for species conservation, which has suffered from the misconception that it has little to do with people and their development priorities. The reality is the converse: species conservation can and does deliver on… poverty reduction and livelihood improvement.”

In 2000, 189 member states of the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, an ambitious series of targets that aim to halve global poverty by 2015. They recognized environmental sustainability as one of their goals.

But the WWF asserts that in practice, this has not happened. It says that while billions of dollars are being spent to reduce poverty and promote sustainable economic development, it is often done without enough attention to the link between sustainable development and a healthy environment.

The report calls for greater support for a new basis of funding for endangered and threatened species in which conservation work plays a central role in the development portfolio, especially in areas of high biodiversity.

It urges national governmental and international bodies to forge more partnerships between development agencies and civil society groups, especially those working in communities with rare birds, animals and flora. The aim is to facilitate delivery of both conservation and anti-poverty efforts.

The report analyses case studies involving threatened species, including tigers in Nepal, gorillas in Uganda, giant pandas in China, marine turtles in Costa Rica, and river dolphins in India.

The WWF study explains how poor rural communities are gaining through employment, social empowerment, income generation and access to meat from current conservation programs.

In Nepal, a tiger conservation program gives local people and farmers the power to benefit from their forest resources in household uses such firewood, non-timber forest products, fodder and income through the sale of timber.

Wildlife and nature-based tourism in Costa Rica, Namibia, Uganda and China also generate income for local communities.

Gross revenues from sea turtle tourism in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, in 2002 alone was estimated at $6.7 million, mainly from lodging and transportation services, as well as souvenir sales and national park and guided-tour fees.

In Namibia, conservation has bankrolled rural infrastructure, especially small irrigation systems, subsidiary roads and trails in remote areas, health centers, schools and drinking water schemes.

The research shows significant improvements in the management and conservation of natural resources in the countries where such projects are based.

In Tortuguero, Costa Rica, green turtle nesting reportedly increased by an estimated 417 percent between 1971 and 2003.

In Uganda, the world’s last remaining mountain gorilla populations are slowly growing because of intensive conservation efforts. The current recorded population in the two national parks of Bwindi and Mgahinga is around 700.

In Nepal, the number of tigers and rhinos increased from 100 in the 1960s to about 460 today, says WWF.