19
May 2008 - Bonn, May 20, 2008 – Environmental
degradation is a key factor turning extreme
weather events into natural disasters, a
new WWF report has found. WWF is urging
governments to create suitable protected
areas and to maintaining natural ecosystems,
such as coastal mangroves, coral reefs,
floodplains and forest, that may help buffer
against natural hazards.
Natural Security: Protected
Areas and Hazard Mitigation, prepared with
environmental research group Equilibrium,
examines in detail the impacts of floods
in Bangladesh (2000), Mozambique (2000 and
2001) and Europe (2006), heat waves and
forest fires in Portugal (2003), an earthquake
in Pakistan (2005) and the Indian Ocean
tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina in
the USA (2005) in illustrating the natural
disaster prevention and mitigation potential
of environmental conservation.
“It is deforestation
and floodplain development that most often
links high rainfall to devastating floods
and mudslides,” said Liza Higgins-Zogib
of the WWF’s Protected Areas Initiative.
“Extreme coastal events cause much more
loss of life and damage when reefs are damaged,
mangroves are removed, dune systems are
developed and coastal forests are cleared.”
The World Bank estimates
that more than 3.4 billion people, or more
than half of the world’s population, are
exposed to at least one natural hazard and
according to the report, over the past 50
years the severity of impacts from natural
disasters has increased, due in part to
the loss of healthy ecosystems in the regions
affected.
Examples of these impacts
include a doubling of wave energy in the
Seychelles as a result of reef destruction
and sea level rise with a further doubling
predicted over the next decade and evidence
of greatly different levels of tsunami impact
in neighbouring communities being related
to the extent of reef protection and remaining
mangrove coverage.
It also explores how
the loss of upwards of 70 per cent of floodplains
in the Danube and tributaries is contributing
to increases in the frequency and severity
of floods and how vegetation and land use
changes change natural fire regimes and
boost devastation levels from wildfires.
“While large-scale disasters
cannot be entirely avoided, the report identifies
specific ways we can mitigate the devastating
impact of disasters through better ecosystem
management, including the establishment
of protected areas”, said Jonathan Randall,
senior program officer for WWF’s Humanitarian
Partnerships programme and co-author of
Natural Security.
In one success story,
the investment of US$1.1 million in mangrove
replanting and other measures saves some
Vietnamese communities an estimated US$7.3
million a year in sea dyke maintenance.
During typhoon Wukong in 2000 the area remained
relatively unharmed while neighbouring provinces
suffered significant loss of life and property.
Similarly, the management
of some 17% of Swiss forests mainly for
their protective functions in reducing avalanches,
landslides and flooding is calculated to
provide protective services valued at an
estimated US$2 to 3.5 billion per year.
WWF is urging governments
to create suitable protected areas and to
maintaining natural ecosystems, such as
coastal mangroves, coral reefs, floodplains
and forest, that may help buffer against
natural hazards. It also calls on governments
to maintain traditional cultural ecosystems
that have an important role in mitigating
extreme weather events, such as agroforestry
systems, terraced crop-growing and fruit
tree forests in arid lands.
In the many areas exposed
to greater natural disaster risk through
degraded ecosystems, WWF recommends that
opportunities be provided for their active
or passive restoration.
“We recognise that there
have been many international agreements
and declarations linking the preservation
of ecosystem services with the mitigation
of disasters, but note that in many cases
it is only the permanent and well-managed
setting aside of land and sea as protected
areas which can provide the stability and
protection so often called for,” said Randall.
Liza Higgins-Zogib, Manager People and Conservation,
WWF International,
Jonathan Randall, Senior Program Officer,
WWF-US Humanitarian Partnerships Programme,
Notes to editors:
• Natural Security: Protected Areas and
Hazard Mitigation is available at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/natural_security_final.pdf
• Natural Security is the fifth volume in
the WWF Arguments for Protection series,
which is assembling evidence on the social
and economic benefits of protected areas
to strengthen support for park creation
and management. Jonathan Randall will launch
the report at the 9th Conference of Parties
to the Convention on Biological Diversity
in Bonn, Germany on May 20.
• For more information on the Arguments
for Protection series: www.panda.org/protection/arguments
About WWF
WWF, the global conservation organization,
is one of the world's largest and most respected
independent conservation organizations.
WWF has a global network active in over
100 countries with almost 5 million supporters.
WWF's mission is to
stop the degradation of the earth's natural
environment and to build a future in which
humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving
the world's biological diversity, ensuring
that the use of renewable natural resources
is sustainable, and promoting the reduction
of pollution and wasteful consumption.
