ABSTRACT
J. S. Burgess and E. Woolmington note, the term threat is highly anthropocentric: It is a social metaphor applied to biological systems. It suggests human concern that certain valued characteristics of Nature are in danger of degradation or destruction. Human impacts upon parks are likely to emerge as dynamic and evolving; man-Nature relationships are likely to vary in form and content from culture to culture, if not from park to park. The eruption of volcanoes in North America, the interruption of rainfall in Africa, floods, and disease in Asia—all remind us of the difficulties in managing Nature to meet human objectives. In 1967, at the request of the United Nations (UN), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature published the first UN list of national parks and equivalent reserves. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
