Help
protected areas — English
Any rural or urban area deemed worthy of protection and/or conservation for the benefit of the future generations. It includes wildlife areas and nature reserves, spectacular waterfalls, dramatic coast lines, vast stretches of pristine desert, historic parts of cities, old city centres, single human artefacts with their immediate environments, and so forth. Museums provide a safe haven for relatively small objects, but large natural features and human artefacts such as the Taj Mahal in Aggra (India), the pyramids in Egypt, the Kruger National Park, the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site and the Iguassú waterfalls could not be locked away in museums! Yet, the protection worthiness of these places and objects have been obvious for many years or even centuries, and attempts to protect them date from many years ago. Long before modern-day environmental management was even devised, these very special, valuable and irreplaceable places and objects were already being protected by various ad hoc international agreements, national laws, regional and/or municipal regulations and a myriad of other legal instruments specifically designed to ensure their protection. Although current environmental management practices and legislation provide for the protection of these special features, they are still afforded special consideration and many of the old, specified pre-environmental management rulings still apply. In many cases, the special case-specific protection arrangements for places or objects take precedence over the normal environmental legislation. Antarctica is a case in point. Normal environmental legislation does not apply to Antarctica, it is being protected by the International Antarctic Treaty, an international body under the aegis and for all practical purposes the highest decision-making body as far as Antartica is concerned. From the few examples mentioned above, it is obvious that the variety of the places and objects that must be protected vary widely in size and nature. Even within one and the same protected area such as the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, certain parts are very lightly protected, while certain parts are so strictly protected that visitors are not even allowed into them. This type of protection is nowadays commonly used so that certain parts of a protected area are not even open to the public, while less tight control is excised over the so-called buffer zone where the public may enjoy the natural or human-made treasures and wonders of our diverse world. (Note: It is important to realise that environmental management deals with natural as well as human-made areas and objects.)
