CLIMATE CHANGE AND CONSERVATION OF NATURE

Did you know that GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE are NOT the most immediate threat to the conservation of nature? While Al Gore and Tony Blaire battle for saving the world from the disaster of climate change, the world is unaware for the most immediate crisis for the conservation of nature: More than half of the world's rainforests risk disappearing within 2 decades because there are no park rangers and wardens to manage them. Without those multi functional custodians of national parks and nature reserves, most wild animals are without protection from poachers and rainforests will be invaded and cut down for agriculture or other production purposes. 

Let's just give you some examples:

So what is the problem? Are all those generous donors like the World Bank, the United Nations, and countries like the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, just to name a few, not making generous contributions? Yes they are. But they are restricted by certain policies. In general, these donors are not allowed to finance the hiring of personnel for the government. So they finance very good and useful studies and infrastructure. But without sufficient staff, the nature reserves can't benefit from them, as there is nobody to actually do the work. 

The western world has asked the developing and transition* countries to set aside about 10% of their land as nature reserves, and over the last 20 years, they actually did that! But the conservation world has never properly addressed the consequences of such an increase in protected areas: the need for more staffing. As 2/3 of the costs of a protected area are the cost of the salaries of park wardens and rangers, there is a vast shortage of rangers worldwide. The West hardly contributed anything at all to share in the increased costs to pay for field staff. Abandoned nature reserves everywhere are the result. With the effects of climate change becoming more and more visible they need rangers to protect them from forest fires, poaching, illegal tree cutting, etc. Moreover, they also need to be socially integrated with local communities, so that people will respect and appreciate the nature reserves. This can only be achieved if the protected areas are staffed with enough park rangers and wardens. If the world fails to foresee in the need for park wardens and rangers in the next two decades or so, we fear that a great deal of the progress the world has made over the last decade or so, will be lost after all.  

The effects of Climate Change on nature will be severe, and if we don't immediately start protecting the last remaining wild areas in the world , probably less than half of the wild plant and animal species of the world will have gone extinct before the end of this century. We must take all the measures possible to prevent climate change from getting worse. But what is already in the air, we can't take out and many people believe that climate change already is a fact**. The only way we can reduce the effects of climate change on nature and wildlife is by having the 10% of the world's land mass set aside as protected area, effectively managed and protected. This is only possible when each and each protected area has sufficient and properly trained field staff.  

Climate change has become the new wave of environmental concern. As governments have become increasingly budget aware, the ministers of finance do anything to prevent additional spending. New political agendas will have to be financed from budgets for politically less hot programmes. Nature conservation has lost its political momentum and much of its financing is now used for other purposes, particularly climate change. The largest financing for nature conservation has been redirected to different other noble and important directions, one of it being combating climate change. The World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF is now also using part of its funding to combat climate change.

As global change gets more and more attention from political icons, like Al Gore and Tony Blair, nature conservation will increasingly be pushed to the background. With the financing of the protected areas in developing countries already being very inadequate, the reduction of the budgets for biodiversity conservation to finance climate change abatement, leads to ADDITIONAL species loss. 

Not because of the change of the climate, but because of budget reduction! As a result, climate change kills species, long before the effects of climate change and draughts have permanently altered the ecosystems. Don't let this happen! Speak out to your government representative and let him/her know that for you species conservation is just as important as climate change abatement.

Adopt A Ranger, AAR is an innovative initiative to draw worldwide public attention to the most urgent problem that conservation is facing in developing and transition countries: protected areas without field staff. Very specifically, it will contribute to solving the problem by fund raising to finance rangers in the field. It will also help governments in developing and transition countries to assess realistic staffing needs and staffing strategies. 

Adopt A Ranger has as its mission to support the conservation of nature worldwide, particularly by:

1. financing the salaries and operational costs of "national park rangers" and comparable officials whose task it is to protect natural areas and to serve the stakeholder public of the protected area to which they be assigned; and

2. promoting public interest in the conservation of protected areas in developing countries.

There is no doubt that protected areas in developed countries also suffer from ranger deficits and we would like to mention the severe shortage of all European Mediterranean countries, that have the highest biodiversity in Europe. While Adopt A Ranger focuses on the needs of developing and transition countries, any individual or organization can use Adopt A Ranger to finance rangers for any protected area in any country of the world! 

* The "transition" countries are the former communist countries whose economies are now in transition. 

NATURE WORLDWIDE is the official website of the World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE. It is an integrated network of web sites dealing with different topics on nature, nature conservation and natural resources management. Read here why we created Nature Worldwide. Our Methodology explains how we produced our information. Our Site Map helps you find your way in the website. We made this website out of passion for conservation. We spent our own salaries and free time to gather the information and publish it on these websites, in total valuing hundreds of thousands of dollars of professional time. Nobody pays us to do this. We simply want to contribute to conservation. If you appreciate our work, PLEASE visit our site Adopt A Ranger and see how you can make a difference for conservation most effectively: By paying one day of the salary of a ranger, you will make a difference in conserving the lives of thousands of birds, other critters and entire forests. Enjoy!

NATURE DU MONDE est le site Web officiel du World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE, C'est une collection intégrée de sites web qui traitent avec des sujets différents sur nature, conservation de la nature et gestion des ressources naturelles. Lisez ici pourquoi nous avons créé Nature de Monde. Notre Methodologie explique comme nous avons produit nos renseignements. Notre Site Map vous aide trouver votre entrée dans le site web. Beaucoup de plaisir!

NATURALEZA DEL MUNDO es la página Web oficial del World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE, Es una red de páginas Web tratando de temas diferentes relacionados a la naturaleza, la conservación el manejo de recursos naturales, parques nacionales y áreas protegidas. Lea aqui porqué hicimos Naturaleza del Mundo. Nuestra Methodología explica como produjimos la información. Nuestro Mapa del sitio le ayuda encontrar su información en nuestra página web. Disfrute! 

NATUREZA DO MUNDO é o Web site oficial do World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE, Es uma red de páginas Web tratando de temas diferentes relacionados à natureza, la conservação el manejo de recursos naturaleiss, parques nacionais y áreas protegidas. Lea aqui porqué creamos Natureza do Mundo. Nossa Methodología explica como produjimos a informação. Nosso Mapa do sitio le ayuda encontrar sua informação no web site. Desfrute!

NATUR DER GANZEN WELT ist, die offiziellen Website der World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE. Es ist ein einheitliches Netzwerk von Web Sites, über Themen wie Natur, Natur-Schutz und natürlichem Ressourcen Quellen Hege. Lesen Sie hier warum wir Natur der ganzen Welt gemacht haben. Un

sere Verfahrensweise erklärt, wie wir unsere Informationen produziert würde. Unsere Site Map  hilft Ihnen Ihren Weg im Website zu finden. Viel Spaß!

NATUUR UIT ALLE STREKEN is, de officiële Website van het World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE. Het is een geïntegreerd Netwerk van websites, over Natuur, Natuurbescherming en het beheer van natuurlijke hulpbronnen. Lesen Sie hier warum wir Natuur uit alle Streken gemacht haben. Onze pagina Methode legt uit, hoe we onze informatie vergaarden. Onze Site Map helpt u op weg door onze website. 

WICE is a worldwide non-government non-profit organization that contributes to the conservation of nature. While it works on a many issues related to the conservation of nature and the protection of the environment, it is particularly committed to the conservation of national parks and other protected areas.

WICE - USA office:                            

1639 Steamboat Run Road

Shepherdstown, WV25443, USA

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