Tropical forest reserves threatened by human activityJuly 26, 2012 - 16:04 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Tropical forest reserves are failing to preserve biodiversity, often because of poor management, says a report in TG Daily. A team of more than 200 scientists has conducted hundreds of interviews with experts on 60 protected areas in 36 countries and found that four-fifths had experienced some declines in health. About half of the areas had suffered more serious losses to biodiversity. "If you put a boundary around a piece of land and install some bored park guards and that's all you do, the park will eventually die," says University of Pennsylvania biologist Daniel Janzen. "It's death from a thousand cuts." Among the types of wildlife and plants most negatively affected were bats, amphibians, lizards, large-bodied mammals, stream-dwelling fish, amphibians and old-growth trees. And this may be the tip of the iceberg, as the researchers didn't even attempt to monitor insects, fungi or other small organisms. Much of the reason appears to be people. Environmental conditions and activities occurring outside of the reserves strongly predicted the biodiversity within. Logging, declining forest cover and increasing fires outside the protected areas tended to pull down the health of the reserves themselves, according to the report. The biggest problem is often getting the political and economic support to stave off threats from human activity in protected areas. And conservationists can't take a cookie-cutter approach to designing and managing protected areas, says Janzen. "You have to fine-tune and tailor-make your park to the particular circumstances of a place: the nature of the people, the resources and the organisms," he says. Top stories The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says. Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has visited the southern Armenian province of Syunik, the Defense Ministry reported on March 18. Partner news | Turkey extends military presence in Azerbaijan The Turkish parliament has adopted a bill submitted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to extend the mandate of Turkish troops. Russia to begin assessing migrant workers' speaking skills Rosobrnadzor is planning to change the Russian language exam for migrant workers and include an assessment of speaking skills Armenian, Saudi Foreign Minister meet in Riyadh The two commended the positive dynamics of the development of political dialogue between Armenia and Saudi Arabia Pashinyan: Azerbaijan’s proximity shouldn’t worry border residents At the same time, he said that he “does not guarantee [the security of villagers] one hundred percent”. |