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Home > Events > CIFOR Events > II Latin American Congress of National Parks and Other Protected Areas Bariloche, Argentina 30 September to 6 October 2007
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II Latin American Congress of National Parks and Other Protected Areas Bariloche, Argentina 30 September to 6 October 2007
Time to bring Latin America back to the international agenda! In Latin America protected areas always have constituted the major instrument for the conservation of nature. Nowadays, large portions of tropical forests, mountains, arid lands, temperate ecosystems and coastal and marine areas are legally protected. Because the region is the richest in biodiversity worldwide, conservation issues in Latin America received much attention from the global community after the Rio Summit during the 1990s. However, in the present decade biodiversity and hence protected areas decreased in priority since national and regional policies have concentrated more on economic development. In the meantime, the attention of the global society drifted to the alleviation of poverty and water scarcity and away from Latin America's biodiversity.
In spite of having lost its privileged position on the political agenda, the work of conservation authorities, local communities, the academy and NGOs has been constant and major results have been achieved. Latin America is now known for its strongly established national protected areas systems, and for its well-designed and implemented corridors and ecorregional initiatives. Administrative decentralization processes have resulted in the creation of protected areas of local, municipal and regional level. Thanks to its rich cultural diversity, the region is a leader in participatory management models, sustainable use areas and indigenous reserves. There has been a rapid increase of stakeholders that value and invest in the environmental services of protected areas, including water companies, private business, tourism and private land owners.
The threats on protected areas have not diminished during the last decade. On the contrary, several new, major threats have risen. Recently, climate change finally has become a global priority and the vast tropical ecosystems in Latin America are recognized as extremely vulnerable. Continental-wide infrastructure initiatives, like the Plan Puebla Panama and IIRSA, are likely to change the geography of the entire region. Economic integration and regional development policies have a direct impact on illegal trade, invasive species and colonization. Finally, the rapid expansion of biofuel crops like oil palm, sugarcane and soybean put a direct threat to the protected areas and its inhabitants.
All the previous calls for a major regional event, with global importance, to bring the Latin American protected areas back to the attention of the global society and to the national policy agendas. This is the perfect moment for the region to use the opportunities that Protected Areas provide to sustainable development, for adaptation to climate change and to guarantee the preservation of its enormous diversity.
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