ABSTRACT
Putting time and effort into selecting and designing protected areas only makes sense if there is a reasonable chance that the areas can be secured for the foreseeable future - indeed, this underpins the entire philosophy of protected area management. Unfortunately, this is often not the case today. Around the world, there is a growing recognition that many protected areas are being degraded and destroyed. A fair proportion of the national parks, wilderness areas and nature reserves that appear in global surveys of protected areas exist in name only - the so-called paper-parks phenomenon - and there has never been any real attempt to manage them for conservation. In these circum stances, degradation comes in many forms, including poaching (of wildlife, fish, timber and other resources), illegal mining, encroachment by settlers, overuse by tourists, and the development of infrastructure such as roads and dams. Sometimes local opposition to protected areas contributes to their loss. Even when protected areas are being actively managed, significant degradation may occur, especially when visitor pressure is high.
