In situ and Ex situ Conservation of Commercial Tropical Trees - ITTO

The variety of mechanisms allows different forms and degrees ofprotection to be afforded to different forests. The conservation of foreststherefore can be pursued to varying degrees through the establishment of areasprotected from exploitation and those in which both conservation anddevelopment goals are pursued jointly, through the development of communityandlandowner-based conservation programmes, and through sustainable forestmanagement regimes in forests managed for industrial production.Protected areasThe deliberate reservation of specific areas of forest from particular uses, toprotect the features for which they are valued, is an ancient and widespreadhuman practice (Colchester 1994, Gomez-Pompa & Kaus 1992). Historicalexamples of protected forests include the sacred groves of Asia and Africaand the royal forests of Europe. In some cases protection was imposed by aruling elite; in others it was conferred by more general agreement; in all casesvarious sanctions were applied to those who failed to respect the protectionregime.Since the world’s first National Park, Yellowstone in the USA, wasdeclared in 1872, the concept of ‘protected areas’ has emerged as a key elementof national and international strategies to protect forest values. Protected areasnow make a fundamental contribution to the conservation of the world’s naturaland cultural resources; the values they protect include landscape features,representative ecosystems, biological diversity, environmental services, andcultural heritage. The purpose of protected areas has also evolved from a focuson the protection of landscape features to an emphasis on the protection ofbiological diversity.The internationally agreed definition of a protected area is:An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection andmaintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated culturalresources, and managed through legal or other effective means (IUCN1994).The World Conservation Union (IUCN) recognises six categories ofprotected area, summarised in Box 2. These categories represent differentdegrees of emphasis on conservation and development, and acknowledge thecomplementarity of different approaches to protecting forest values. Allcategories are intended to be permanent designations that provide long-termprotection to biodiversity and other values. IUCN’s World Commission onProtected Areas does not consider large-scale industrial activities as compatiblewith any category of protected area (Phillips 1998).15