GEF 37643 Global Support forWilderness Areas PEOPLE AND WILDERNESS AREAS Wilderness areas bring significant benefits to to increase awareness, stimulate enthusiasm, both local and remote populations. Among develop local site support groups, and create the varied beneficiaries of wilderness areas sustainable economic opportunities. Many are recreational users; those who seek out indigenous people, who often live near or in the scientific values of these areas; those who wilderness areas, retain traditional knowledge depend on wilderness areas for subsistence; and resource management practices that could native inhabitants who value wilderness areas contribute to biodiversity conservation. for their spiritual, cultural, and emotional significance; and distant communities who In a major wilderness area in Peru, a GEF project depend on wilderness watersheds for water managed by the World Bank is working to increase supplies. Even those who live thousands of miles participationofindigenouspeoplesinconservation away value wilderness areas for their impor- of biodiversity through communal management of tance in the global environment as preservers of protected areas. Project goals include establishing biodiversity and as carbon sinks. areas for communal reserves using participatory methods, developing management plans and Expanding constituencies for wilderness areas agreements with indigenous communities, and and the values they represent depends to a building and strengthening the organizational and great degree on governance structures that give technical capacity of local institutions to manage stakeholders a voice, a role, rights, responsibilities, reserves sustainably. and a reason to care. When these structures are informed by a shared vision that goes to the CONNECTING BOUNDARIES TO heart of stakeholder concerns, the chances for SURROUNDINGS sustainability are greatly increased. Many experts believe that conservation efforts must extend beyond the formal boundaries of LOCAL PARTICIPATION wilderness protected areas. Experience shows Closely aligned with national priorities, GEF that the full potential of these areas is real- projects generate substantial benefits to local ized only when their surrounding geographic, communities. It has been the GEF's experience economic, and social contexts are taken into that indigenous knowledge is vital to conserving account. It is vital that protected area managers biodiversity and managing wilderness areas. The and government agencies establish and manage GEF brings local communities into the conserva- wilderness protected areas holistically within tion action process through activities designed natural boundaries. www.theGEF.org GEF projects work to link wilderness areas ment is part of the larger landscape conservation and their surroundings in a myriad of ways-- and ecosystem management effort. through buffer zones, corridors, cultural link- ages, integrated ecosystem and coastal zone Another example of how the GEF is tying management, and transboundary protected wilderness areas to their surroundings is a GEF areas. Buffer zones create a transition between project in Bolivia, which the World Bank is imple- protected areas and the surrounding land- menting. The project covers extensive areas, scape, where planners and managers can work including the Amazon, one of South America's with neighboring communities to address their most important wilderness areas, and supports needs and expectations. Ecological corridors increased participation of local communities in multiply the conservation benefits of protected protected area management and the sustainable areas by connecting them within the larger use of natural resources. About 40,000 people surrounding ecosystems. in 150 communities inhabit the 22 protected areas and their buffer zones. An example of the GEF's work can be found in the vast landscapes of Arctic Russia, some of the The protected areas were established for their last remaining wilderness on earth. The region rich biodiversity. The natural ecosystems covered serves as the feeding and breeding ground for by this project provide ecological services that are millions of migratory birds and mammals from important to the national and regional economy. Asia, Africa, and Europe. However, its rare and The management of these protected areas is endemic plants and wildlife are beginning to be an opportunity to provide additional protec- imperiled by overharvesting, illegal harvesting, tion to traditional lifestyles. The subsistence of and habitat fragmentation. Only a few species the Quechua, Tacana, Chimanes, and Aymara are currently protected. indigenous peoples comes from the sustainable use of the protected area resources. A GEF-supported project implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme is This project and the one in Arctic Russia reflect contributing to the conservation and sustainable GEF's belief that wilderness areas must increas- use of biodiversity in these wilderness areas in ingly be connected to their surroundings and Arctic Russia. Its immediate objective is to adopt to the environmental context in which they strategies and initiate action plans for integrating are found. In its current and future work, the ecosystem management in three model areas-- GEF will continue supporting the expansion that is, carefully combining conservation and of protected areas to the larger production sustainable use of forests, tundra, freshwater, landscape, taking into account the needs of and marine resources. Protected area manage- local communities. FOR MORE INFORMATION Shirley Geer Acting Team Leader, External Relations Global Environment Facility 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 USA Tel: 202-473-0508 Fax: 202-522-3240 September 2005