ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the meaning of protected areas and briefly describes some of the more significant problems facing their establishment and management. Protected area managers are being required to devote resources to raise their own funding and as a result protected areas are facing greater degradation, with many protected areas being no more than 'paper parks'. The traditional approach to nature conservation has focused on the declaration of protected areas. These include issues related to the size, shape and condition of environmentally sensitive areas and networks and corridors. There has been a reluctance to tackle the issue of external threats to protected areas, because they are considered more complex and difficult to deal with than internal threats. Conservation objectives need to adopt a bioregional approach that integrates planning and management of dispersed habitats with existing protected areas, and focuses on linking and buffering the systems.
