Exploring Environmental Complementarity between Types of Protected Areas in Kenya
Agence Française de Développement
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Abstract: The current rate of loss of biodiversity has been described as a ?crisis?. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), we are witnessing the greatest extinction crisis since dinosaurs disappeared from our planet 65 million years ago (IUCN, 2010). Protected areas (PAs) which have long been?and remain?the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation are consequently expected to play a central role in addressing the global biodiversity crisis (Bruner et al., 2004). According to IUCN, a protected area is ?a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural value,? (Dudley, 2008). Protected areas are, however, by no means uniform. On the basis of ownership, we may for example differentiate three main categories of PAs, i.e. state PAs are those owned by government or its agencies, private PAs are those owned by individuals or companies with private land titles, and community PAs are those owned collectively by communities. In most large conservation landscapes, there is now a mixture of state, private and community PAs. This mix is not the result of a rational PA planning process but more often the result of a complex series of events over several decades.