Center for Environment Justice (CEJ) Zambia is concerned that protected areas in developing countries are now being over- exploited for financial gains while ignoring the true essence of nature conservancy.
CEJ Head of Research Freeman Mubanga said that Climate Change impacts are already proving it difficult for nature conservancy agencies to facilitate the restoration of functional ecosystems.
He has since called on the Zambian government to fulfil conservation commitments to Non-Extraction in protected areas.
Mr Mubanga said that CEJ is therefore, calling on stakeholders not to forget that nature conservation remains the primary aim of protected areas.
He also said that the ethical basis of biodiversity conservation is recognized by signatories of the Convention on Biological Diversity, nationally through wildlife protection and protected area legislation, by senior members of all the world’s major religions (Palmer and Finlay 2003), and by much of the general public.
Mr Mubanga said scientific understanding has in recent decades significantly progressed about the critical role of both terrestrial protected areas and marine protected areas (MPAs) for biodiversity conservation and the maintenance of life-support systems on the planet.
The CEJ Head of Research observed that given the current impacts of climate change on the environment, protected areas are scientifically proven to be significant to preserve not only wild species but also the ecosystems in which species live.
