Conservation

This publication summarizes and evaluates the series of seminars organized to enable professionals to exchange information and experiences in the fields of conservation and sustainable development.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment emphasises the inter-relationship between ecosystem health and human well-being. Most ecosystems are severely degraded and the services that they provide to society are diminishing. As a result, important targets for biodiversity and development are unlikely to be met. Community conservation processes are often isolated and marginalised from mainstream conservation efforts.

More than twenty years have passed since community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) rose to prominence in different parts of Africa as a strategy for rural development, local empowerment, and conservation. Led by new ideas about the merits of decentralized, collective resource governance regimes, and creative field experiments such as Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE, these community-based approaches evolved in a wide range of ecological, political, and social contexts across Africa.

Le Maroc entreprend une initiative de grande envergure visant l'établissement d'un réseau national d'aires protégées écologiquement représentatif et adéquatement géré. Plus de 150 Sites d'Intérêt Biologique et Ecologique, identifiés dans différentes régions du pays constituent la base spatiale pour l'établissement de ces aires protégées. Jusqu'en 2006, neuf de ces sites ont été classés Parcs Nationaux.

Marine mammal conservation presents a number of challenges for scientists and other stakeholders, especially using natural resources in ways that avoid crisis management. Scientists play the special role of providing vital information to decision makers to help them understand long-term consequences of their actions and avoid crises before they develop.