ABSTRACT
Global trends that result in increasing ecological change may be important sources of threats to parks. At the beginning of the 1980s, the world's population was estimated to be 4.3 billion persons; the population is predicted to increase by 55 percent from 1975 to the year 2000. Traditional cultures in rural areas often comprise major proportions of the societies. In contrast to industrialized societies where resource consumption is dispersed throughout a number of ecosystems worldwide, these traditional cultures often have occupied an ecological niche in local ecosystems for a long time. Park management in the 1960s was characterized by a slowly growing ecological consciousness. During this period, for instance, an institute was established at Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to conduct ecological research, and several committees in the United States began to study the role of ecology in park management. In some African parks, elephant herds have overpopulated park lands and have caused serious ecological damage.
