Letter: Letter: Parks and people

From MARTIN HOLDGATE

Fred Pearce (‘The green missionaries of Africa’, Forum, 21 April) accused
national parks of endangering the very people who can best preserve the
environment, and questioned whether funds donated to the World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF) were being used to destroy indigenous culture. We wish
that Pearce had asked our views. The International Union for Conversation
of Nature and National Resources (IUCN) and WWF have a very clear position:
conservation is for people. Where national parks deny some resources to
local people to meet national conservation objectives, it is the responsibility
of government to provide the economic incentives which are required to ensure
that local people benefit from the park.

We have also been very clear that indigenous people have the right to
remain in national parks, where their presence is consistent with the management
objectives of the park. IUCN books contain numerous case studies showing
how the relationship between local human cultures and protected areas can
be a positive one.

In the specific case of the Air Tenere National Nature Reserve in Niger,
Pearce presents only part of the picture. Facts he ignored include: the
Tuaregs are no longer hunters because wildlife populations have been so
devastated that little game can be found; the objective of our joint project
is the sustainable use of the area’s natural and cultural resources; project
activities which benefit the local people include introduction of woodless
building techniques (because few trees remain), adult literacy classes,
improvement of wells, and training of rural health workers; the regulations
controlling human use of the resources are based on traditional laws relevant
to the conditions in the area; major investments are being made to demonstrate
mechanisms for rehabilitating the habitat (though we recognise that the
very limited funds available prevent these from being applied over broad
areas; and the areas where human use is most restricted were virtually uninhabited
before the reserve was established.

While the Air Tenere project is not perfect – few conservation projects
are – it certainly is helping the Tuaregs far more than it is hurting them.
Conservation is clearly in the interest of the Tuaregs. As John Newby, our
project manager in the region, says, ‘What future is there for the people
of the Sahel if the meagre resources upon which their lives depend deteriorate
even further?

Martin Holdgate Director General IUCN Gland Switzerland