NEW Spring 2022 - Protecting Nature in a World of People: Protected Areas, Economic Development and Tourism
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The earth now has 7.8 million people and will likely peak at 10 billion around 2060. How can the diversity of plants, animals and ecosystems survive on a finite planet with a climate that is changing at an unprecedented rate? This course examines the role of national parks and other protected areas and the challenges these areas face in protecting species and ecosystems. It is notable that the acreage of protected areas is higher than ever, and substantially above the 10 percent that was once the target of the environmental movement. Yet global extinctions are high and rising. Two of the main issues for protected areas are dealing with a fast-growing flood of tourists and making peace with the hundreds of millions of people, many of them poor, who live in and around them. Is conflict among protected areas, local populations and tourism inevitable? Or can we make tourism “sustainable” and harness it for the benefit of both nature protection and local development?The earth now has 7.8 million people and will likely peak at 10 billion around 2060. How can the diversity of plants, animals and ecosystems survive on a finite planet with a climate that is changing at an unprecedented rate? This course examines the role of national parks and other protected areas and the challenges these areas face in protecting species and ecosystems. It is notable that the acreage of protected areas is higher than ever, and substantially above the 10 percent that was once the target of the environmental movement. Yet global extinctions are high and rising. Two of the main issues for protected areas are dealing with a fast-growing flood of tourists and making peace with the hundreds of millions of people, many of them poor, who live in and around them. Is conflict among protected areas, local populations and tourism inevitable? Or can we make tourism “sustainable” and harness it for the benefit of both nature protection and local development?
