World Parks Congress

WORLD PARKS CONGRESS - THE SCOOP!

"Benefits beyond Boundaries" was the theme of this year's World Parks Congress, chosen to remind delegates that if we are to be successful in our efforts to conserve nature we all need to begin thinking, planning and working at the broadest possible level. For Bonaire this could not be more apt. Our seas know no boundaries - as the garbage constantly washing up on our windward shore eloquently testifies - and our coral reefs are so close to shore that everything we do on the land directly and immediately impacts on them. If we are going to truly protect our coral reefs from harm, we have to work together.

The mood of the conference was optimistic. Against a backdrop of a huge boabab tree, an African sunset and a dance troop mimicking African wildlife, it was repeatedly stressed that the goal set at the 4th Parks Congress in Caracas in 1993 of protecting 10% of the land area of the planet had not only been met but exceeded and that an area the size of the USA and China combined is now legally protected. There were opening addresses by Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor of Jordan stressing the challenges of nature conservation in the 21st centuary. Nevertheless the chilling fact remains that despite our best efforts, the world's biodiversity (plant and animal life) is still declining at a rate unprecedented in the last 65 million years.

Strong emergent themes throughout the Congress included the rights of indigenous peoples within protected areas, partnership building, youth involvement in protected areas and the urgent need for transboundary approaches to conservation. Other common threads included the impact of climate change on conservation management, the urgent need to develop sustainable funding mechanisms for protected areas and the need to ensure that the benefits of protected areas are shared equitably amongst all stakeholder groups and local communities.

Many of these issues are particularly relevant to Bonaire. We are in the first stages of establishing a new partnership with Curcao and Venezuela to nominate our islands for recognition as one of the very first marine transboundary World Heritage Sites in the world. Our "Southern Caribbean Islands" would then be only the second World Heritage Site in the Caribbean alongside the Belizean Barrier Reef. STINAPA and the nature conservation organisations on each of the Antillean islands are currently working closely with VOMIL (Central Government Department of Health and Environment) to develop new and innovative funding strategies which would support protected areas throughout the Netherlands Antilles.

For the very first time marine issues were well represented at the World Parks Congress. Fully one tenth of attendees were there for the "Marine Theme" and each of the major marine conservation organisations were present. There were workshop streams dedicated to the discussion of marine topics which included everything from watershed management to sustainable fisheries and protection for the world's "high seas" areas.

Bonaire generated attention throughout the Congress. It was profiled at the main conference on a finance panel discussing the need to develop diverse funding portfolios for marine protected areas as well as at the launch of a new book on coral reef monitoring "Monitoring Coral Reef Marine Protected Areas" by Clive Wilkinson which includes a case study on Bonaire. The World Heritage Centre organised a one day workshop prior to the World Parks Congress where there were presentations from managers of existing marine World Heritage Sites: Galapagos, Great Barrier Reef, Belize and Tubbataha in the Philippines. Bonaire also gave a presentation on its new transboundary marine site nomination which was particularly well received.

All of which will be sure to keep Bonaire's name on the international conservation agenda for a while to come!

The World Parks Congress is a once in ten year event bringing together an elite group of government interests, conservationists, leading scientists and protected areas managers from around the world to discuss the current state of nature conservation and to set the global conservation agenda for the coming decade. This year the 5th World Parks Congress was held in Durban South Africa and Bonaire's Kalli De Meyer was able to attend and advocate for some of the great work Bonaire is doing to protect its marine environment.