1.Front section - IUCN

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Friends for Life: New partners in support of protected areas
Protected areas depend on
urban people
As cities depend on protected areas, urban dwellers
are essential to building broader support for protected
areas. Throughout the world, political power, opinion
makers, and communications media are concentrated
in major cities. It follows that protected area agencies
need a presence in those cities. A former director of
Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro has made the
point eloquently: “The fight for the conservation of
the Amazon will not be won in the depths of the
Amazon forest. It can only be won in Rio de Janeiro,
São Paolo, Brasilia, and the other large Brazilian
metropolises. In democracies, no matter how obvious
management decisions are, they must always be
decided by the will of the citizens, and citizens will
not decide or care about the unfamiliar” (Cunha e
Menezes, 2005).
City dwellers gain appreciation for nature less
through conventional education than through outdoor
experiences. In fact, without direct experience of
nature early in life, teaching about environmental
issues can actually breed cynicism about the
environment (Finger, 1994; Schultz, 2000; Schultz,
2002). Growing scientific evidence indicates that
direct experience of nature early in life is essential for
healthy intellectual, emotional, and even moral
development (Kahn and Kellert, 2002).
A tiger in the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary, India.
IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
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