1.Front section - IUCN

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Friends for Life: New partners in support of protected areas
Scotland.
© Jeffrey A. McNeely
In Mexico a federal PA initiative may originate from
NGOs, scientists, or a federal agency. However, to
recruit support at the national level, the process needs
to go through the people. Decisions and actions are
strongly driven by economics and the perception is
that PAs hinder people from meeting basic needs.
However, where nations emphasise clean water, wild
spaces or biological diversity in addition to jobs as
contributing to the quality of life, PAs emerge as an
essential contribution to society as well as the
landscape. Currently PAs in Mexico have a small
amount of political capital. Although virtually every
ecosystem is represented, only eight protected areas
are doing “most of the work.”
Scotland and the Scottish National Heritage
programme use a combination of strategies where
private lands are designated and then the government
pays for certain conservation behaviour. One
designation unique to the United Kingdom including
Scotland, that makes a significant contribution to the
PA system but is not recognised by IUCN, are the
Sites of Special Scientific Interest. In addition to the
Scottish national parks, a recent initiative is the EU
Natura 2000 that has identified many natural areas
throughout Europe which are now integrated into the
system and pay particular attention to marine
conservation. This is an example of international
pressure having a positive effect on national nature
protection efforts. At first Natura 2000 had a pure
science base with scientists deciding where and what
to protect. As with many top-down decision making
processes, this approach met some resistance and
resentment, so the process has evolved to include
more community participation.
Local support
Protected area neighbours, indigenous and mobile
peoples, local politicians and communities can be
both potential sources of great support and/or sources
of tremendous conflict for PAs. Often when a PA is
proposed, and most notably when it is a national park,
local residents look to the promise of tourism dollars
and improved infrastructure as their PA gets “on the
map” and government support systems are activated.
As parks expand or local communities strive for
economic growth, the strategy for advocates is to
communicate that those natural resources “locked up”
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