PRTMGeog 430Introduction

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PRTM/Geog 430--Introduction

• Three forms of the national park and equivalent
  reserve
• Landscape Model
• Wildlife Model
• Cultural Model

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The Landscape Model

• Other names--American Model, The Yellowstone
  Model
• Conservation Objective--Monumental Landscapes,
  wildlife is secondary
• Infrastructure characteristics--high visitation
  high accessibility great investment in
  infrastructure high maintenance costs dependent
  on a mobile, wealthy local, regional and national
  population typically low international
  visitation lots of recreation
• Found in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and
  South Africa
• Nearest--Great Smoky Mountain National Park

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Wildlife Model

• Also--African model, game park, safari park
• Conservation objective--wildlife, landscape
  beauty is not expected or required
• Infrastructure Characteristics--lower
  accessibility low visitation poor local
  population long-haul, high costs,
  international tourism low infrastructure costs
  low service provision little recreation
• Found in Africa, poor Third World Countries,
  Canada, Alaska
• Nearest--Everglades National Park

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Cultural Model

• Conservation object--cultural/natural landscapes
  in their entirety
• Attempts to freeze land use development at a
  particular point in time
• Government land ownership low, high private land
  ownership
• PVO or NGO involvement and administration is
  often high
• High use, lots of recreation, low direct
  infrastructure investment
• Nearest--Really none in the USA. Anarondacks
  State Park, Cades Cove and Williamsburg come
  close.

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Origins of American National Parks

• Conventional Wisdom National parks began in the
  USA with the designation of Yellowstone NP in
  1872
• From there they diffused around the world
• Proponent Rodrick Nash, Wilderness and the
  American Mind

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Diffusion Theory

• Attacks the problem how does something new, an
  innovation, spread
• Requires
• an innovation (national park)
• an adopter
• a route of transmission
• in very few cases has a route of transmission
  been demonstrated
• Carl Akeley and Virungas NP, Belgium Congo, 1925
• in any event, if nothing was invented at
  Yellowstone there is nothing to transmit

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• To have a national park you must have a nation.
  Nations are a relatively new invention.
• King Asoka--5th Century Buddhist India
• These things lead nowhere, however
• I suggest that what invented at Yellowstone in
  1872 was the name national park
• The name has diffused around the world and has
  been applied to a variety of dissimilar land
  institutions.
• The real contribution of the USA comes in 1916
  with the creation of the US National Park Service
  

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• Things called national parks start cropping up
  around the world in the last quarter of the 19th
  century.
• Specifically USA, Canada, Australia, South
  Africa, New Zealand
• National parks as a solution to conservation
  problems are not obvious.
• Therefore, the question wherein did English
  speaking people come up with the idea of parks.
• Probably need to turn to English ideas of land
  and the laws that surround land.

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English Land Law

• England Prior to 1066--Anglo-saxons
• 1066 England conquered and united by William,
  Duke of Normandy
• In the USA, who takes the place of the sovereign
• Public domain
• Thomas Jefferson
• Disposal of the public domain--veterns of the
  federal army and state malitias (Revolutionary
  War), sold, given in small parcels to yoemen
  farmers, to the new states to off set the cost of
  providing public services (common schools,
  colleges, prisons, state capitol)
• Until the 1870s there is no tradition that the
  Federal Government will retain public land for
  other than minor purposes much less for
  conservation or recreation

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• Exceptions
• Arkansas Hot Springs, 1832. for the recreation
  and pleasure of the people. Why a hot spring.
• Mariposa Grove given to California in perpetuity,
  1864
• eventually reverts to federal government as the
  basis for Yosemite NP
  
• The problem with Yellowston NP was there was no
  state to give it to and there was not like to be
  any time in the near future,
• The Montana Situation in the 1870s. Helena.

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• Areas formed in decades after Yellowstone
• 1879--Royal National Park, NSW
• 1894--Ru-Ring-Gai Chase, NSW
• 1885--Banff NP, Canada (its sister park, Glacier,
  not formed until 1910)
• 1880-90s--10 areas in Natal and Cape Province, SA
  of which the most important is East London Coast
  Forest, 1887
• AMERICAN LAND POLICY TO ABOUT 1870--THERE WILL BE
  NO EXTENSIVE FEDERAL RETENTION OF THE PUBLIC
  DOMAIN.
• BY 1870s THERE IS A NEW IDEA THAT LAND FROM THE
  PUBLIC DOMAIN CAN AND WILL BE RETAINED FOR AMONG
  OTHER THINGS, CONSERVATION AND RECREATION
• SOMETHING CHANGED IN THE NATIONAL ATTITUDE
• But what and why?????????

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World views--artistic

• Shift in world view as reflected in popular
  culture. A product of literary movements in
  mostly the late 19th century.
• Classicism--background. This stresses formality
  and style over message. How reflected in art,
  architecture, literature, music and formal
  gardens.
• Romanticism--reaction to the formalism of
  classicism. Appreciates the wild and
  unpredictable, noble savages, peasants,
  nationalism, animals. Commune with nature as
  long as nature isnt too nasty.
• Transcendentalism--almost unique American
  reaction to romanticism.
• Man holds in himself a spark of the define, man
  is prefectable (R. W. Emerson)
• Contact with civilization keeps us from realizing
  our define nature therefore go to the wilderness
  (H. D. Thoreau, WALDEN, 1854)

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Change in Scientific Philosophy

• Western scientific and religious traditions
  werent big on change until about the 1850s.
  Greek science held that anything that changes
  cant be explained. Religious tradition--God
  made it, saw that it was good and that pretty
  well ended the story.
• Charles Darwin (1859)--demonstrated change in
  geology and biology and that the only thing worth
  study is change.
• Darwins ideas slow to penetrate America and not
  well received in popular culture when it did.
• Indpendent realization of environmental
  change--George Perkins Marsh, MAN AND NATURE OR
  PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AS MODIFIED BY MAN (1864).
• John Wesley Powell (explorer of the Colorado
  River)--argues for interference to control
  environment change.

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Political Necessity of Wilderness

• Fredrick Jackson Turner, 1890s, Frontier Thesis
• Frontier is fundamental to American Democracy
• Had provided a safety valve for urban problems
• By 1890, frontier has disappeared
• Worried about what would become of us without a
  frontier
• Solution, though Turner never argued this, is to
  preserve remnants of the frontier in, say, parks,
  for example.

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Things shared with others creating national parks

• English speaking
• English colonial heritage
• English legal traditions
• Frontier experience--settlers
• Exposed to science--Darwin
• All had developed some idea of interference in
  natural process
• All experienced serious conflict with native
  peoples
• All held native claims to land in distane
• All are big by European standards
• All had a metropol or core to turn to for advice
  and direction
• Parks are initially, thereby, a movement in the
  English speaking colonial world rather than and
  innovation that diffused from Yellowstone

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What Parks Are Intended to Do

• In a world of hungry people, it simply wont do
  to say you need parks, because having parks is
  the right thing.
• Parks must do something in and for the society
  they are in.
• They must do at least one important thing and the
  more the better.
• An individual park need not and cannot do all
  things that parks do.
• There may be considerable difference between what
  a park does as a matter of law, and what it does
  in fact.
• So what do parks do?

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What parks do

• Conservation--wildlife (mammals, birds,
  primates), natural landscapes, cultural
  landscapes, topographic features, paleontological
  features, archaeoloical resources, historic and
  cultural remains, vegetation, habitat, genetic
  material, diversity, WATER (but never mineral
  resources).
• Recreation--for citizens and/or for foreign
  visitors
• Economic development--spur the local economy
  and/or earn foreign currency
• Education--instructional research (natural lab,
  for comparison with modified areas, so you can
  manage the park better)
• Political--space filling, distinguish us from
  them, prove maturity in the family of nations,
  provided a focus for cohesion, or
• Just dont know what else to do with the place

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International Organization

• For
• National Parks and Equivalent Reserves

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Things the IUCN doesSearch for a definitive
regional geography of life

• IUCNs highest priority is to make sure there is
  at least one area preserved in each of the
  Earths biogeographical regions.
• But there is no absolute biogeographical
  regionalization of the Earth.
• For example, regional patterns differ if the
  classification is based on plants (slow mobility)
  or animals (rapid mobility).
• But if you want to preserve one of each have to
  come to some agreement on what each is.
• Work begun by R.F. Dasmann and completed by M.
  Udvardy
• Work based on diagnostic species--e.g. cactus
  only in New World, no deer in sub-Saharan Africa,
  eucalyptus in Australia only, etc.

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IUCNs Geographic Organization

• Realms (Nearctic, Paleioarctic, Afrotropical,
  etc.) defined by diagnostics.
• Realms divided into 14 biome types, for example,
  humid tropics. Biome types DO NOT have
  geographical location.
• Realms also divided into biogeographical
  provinces defined by diagnostic species and these
  have a distinct locations

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Characteristics of Afrotropical Realm, For Example

• Hence for example the Afrotropical realm is a
  place that has hares but no rabbits, lots of
  antelope but no deer and no wolves, no cactus but
  lots of euphorbia among other things that
  distinguish it from say North American (or the
  Neartic).
• It could have up to 14 biome types but among
  these the ice cap biome is fairly limited.
• It happens to have 35 Biogeographical Provinces
• For example, the Humid Tropical biome has 3
  biogeographical provinces-the Guinean Forest,
  Congo Forest and Malagasy Forest.
• Desert are Western Eastern Sahel, Somalian,
  Namib, Kalahari and Karoo
• The IUCN likes to number these things. They look
  like this behind a park name IV.7.21

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Characteristics of Afrotropical Realm, For Example

• Hence for example the Afrotropical realm is a
  place that has hares but no rabbits, lots of
  antelope but no deer and no wolves, no cactus but
  lots of euphorbia among other things that
  distinguish it from say North American (or the
  Neartic).
• It could have up to 14 biome types but among
  these the ice cap biome is fairly limited.
• It happens to have 35 Biogeographical Provinces
• For example, the Humid Tropical biome has 3
  biogeographical provinces-the Guinean Forest,
  Congo Forest and Malagasy Forest.
• Desert are Western Eastern Sahel, Somalian,
  Namib, Kalahari and Karoo
• The IUCN likes to number these things. They look
  like this behind a park name IV.7.21

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Still other things the IUCN does

• Maintains office in Gland, Switzerland
• Maintains World Conservation Monitoring Unit,
  Cambridge, England
• Publishes directories of national parks and
  protected areas
• Maintains the international RED BOOK-listing of
  rare, endangered and threatened species of the
  world
• Holds international conference every 5 years
• Coordinates, as far as possible, activities of
  NGOs, Gos but has no regulatory power
• Stimulates and coordinates consultancy
• Maintains a directory of consultants (Dept of
  Social Forestry, School of Forestry, University
  of Finland)
• Publishes results of consultancies and meetings
• Defines parks

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So what does the IUCN say is national park is?

• National parknational park and equivalent
  reserveprotected area
• A national park is
• a large area
• containing one or more ecosystems not materially
  altered by human exploitation and occupation
• contains animal populations, geomorphic sites,
  and habitats of special scientific, educative and
  receptive interests or landscapes of great
  natural beauty
• sovereign has taken steps to prevent eliminate
  exploitation and occupation of the area and to
  ensure respect for the conserved areas
• visitors are allowed to enter for inspirational,
  educative, cultural recreative purposes

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Things not national parks

• Strict nature reserves
• Places managed by private institutions or lower
  government authorities
• Special reserves--forest reserves, game reserves,
  etc
• Recreation areas or areas where recreation takes
  priority over ecological concerns

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Examples from South Carolina

• IUCN directory lists 10 sites in SC69,603 A. or
  109 mi2
• NPS--8.8 (Congaree Swamp)
• USFS--7.4 (Ellicott Rock)
• 83.8--FWS (Cape Romain)

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Convention Concerning the Protection of the
Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, Paris, 1972

• Program is run by UNESCO
• Cultural Heritage Areas
• -Landscapes designed and created intentionally
  by humans
• -Organically evolved landscape
• Relict or fossil landscape
• Continuing landscape
• -Associative cultural landscape
• Natural Heritage Areas criteria
• -outstanding example of evolutionary history
• -outstanding example of geol process , biol
  evolution or man-land interaction
• -unique,rare, superlative or beautiful natural
  phenomenon
• -rare or endangered species
• -willingness to take care of the place

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Natural Heritage Areas of the USA

• Everglades
• Grand Canyon
• Great Smoky Mountain
• Olympic
• Redwood

• Yellowstone
• Mammoth Cave
• Yosemite
• Hawaii Volcanoes
• Kluane-Wrangel/St Elias (joint with Canada)

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• Convention on Wetlands of international
  Importance, Especially as Waterfowl
  HabitatRamsar (Iran), 1971
• UNESCO Biosphere Reserves--program, not a
  convention
• protection of areas that have global standing in
  research, monitoring, training, demonstration and
  conservation
• 48 areas in USA
• Some are what you would expect
• Big Bend, Glacier, Olympic, Yellowstone
• Others are obscure unless you live next to them
• Beaver Creek Experimental Watershed

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New Topic

• How is the USA involved in
• the worlds national parks?

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Types of Foreign Aid

• Military--generally given unilaterally (one
  nation directly to another)
• Foreign Domestic Assistance (unilateral)
• One country directly to another
• Buys loyalty
• Multilateral Domestic Assistance
• Donors give to central organization (like the
  World Bank,IMF)
• Funds distributed on basis of need and
  priority

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Major Donors

• USA
• Has preferred unilateral foreign domestic
  assistance
• Total giving large
• Per capata giving is small
• Not particularly generous
• Major lobby for foreign aid are large, often
  conservative companies (since foreign aid is a
  subsidy)
• Projects subject, in theory, to all American law
• Biodiversity Act -requires replacement of lost
  land
• EPA
• OSHA
• Various restrictions on family planning and
  abortion
• Major recipients--Israel and Egypt
• Has historically avoided conservation and park
  related projects

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Other Major Donors

• Western Europe--tends to support former colonies
• Sweden--largest per capata donor, forestry
• Norway--forestry
• Canada--French/English bilingual countries
• Australia--arid lands
• New Zealand--mountain areas
• Japan--largest total donor, strong commercial
  development
• Saudi Arabia--Moslem, you get a mosque with it
• China--heavy construction, great to work with
• Israel--pass through from US
• Taiwan--fisheries
• Russia and Eastern Europe out of business
• These are hard days for dependent countries

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US--Contracts and Cooperation

• International Office of the NPS
• Runs annual training program through Michigan
  State University
• Other international offices--USFS, FWS, BLM
• US Peace Corps
• much activity has been accidental or incidental
• major work has been done in Colombia, Malawi,
  Costa Rica, Fiji, Morocco, Kenya, Czech Republic
• would be a good thesis topic, if you are ever
  looking for one
• if you want a career in international
  conservation
• The Peace Corps is an absolute must
• Note other countries have peace corps like
  organizations
• BOV is the British equivalent