Conservation Across Borders

Conservationists have long been aware that political boundaries rarely coincide with natural boundaries. From the establishment of early "peace parks" to the designation of continental migratory pathways, a wide range of transborder mechanisms to protect biodiversity have been established by conservationists in both the public and private sectors. Conservation Across Borders presents a broad overview of the history of transboundary conservation efforts and an accessible introduction to current issues surrounding the subject. Through detailed examinations of two initiatives, the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) and the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative (Y2Y), the book helps readers understand the benefits and challenges of landscape-scale protection. In addition to discussing general concepts and the specific experience of ISDA and Y2Y, the author considers the emerging concept of "conservation effectiveness" and offers a comparative analysis of the two projects. The book ends with a discussion of the complex relationships among civil society, governments, and international borders. By considering the history, goals, successes, and failures of two divergent initiatives, the book offers important insights into the field of transborder conservation along with valuable lessons for those studying or working in the field.

The ascendancy of border studies in the last two decades or so, and the burgeoning work on nature and society neither drew attention to ecological theories of borders nor capitalised on nature as a useful avenue through which border research could be advanced. This volume fills this void by engaging with the following key questions: What insights can be drawn from species’ borders to broaden understandings of bordering? What sorts of borders are engendered by various types of conservation areas? What border stories does each of these areas tell us? What do conservation-related borders teach us about multiple lines that divide societies? Answers to these questions help researchers understand a typology of nature-related borders. The primary objectives of this volume are twofold. The first objective is to expand and deepen the links between nature conservation and border studies by bringing species’ borders into conversation with border studies, while at the same time paying attention to diverse conservation areas and conservation practices. The second objective is to highlight forms of borders associated with various types of conservation areas and the protection of certain types of natural resources. The manner in which nature conservation produces borders, and the forms those borders take, has the potential to enrich the conceptualisation of borders. The point of departure in this volume is that conservation practices produce feedback loops on social reality. Authors in the volume variously show that concerns with environmental protection and management offer possibilities for exploring, and even disrupting, borders within society and those between society and nature. Conservation areas in particular are crucial for a meaningful analysis of natures’ borders and the discourses and narratives related to them, and how such discourses influence conservation practice. This volume is an invaluable resource for research and upper-level courses on border studies, political ecology, conservation and biodiversity management, and environmental change and social impact.

Top researchers share their expertise on conservation and sustainability in areas that extend across national borders! This informative and insightful book examines strategies being used by governments and NGOs to protect wild areas that cross national borders and cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic boundaries. In addition to presenting case studies from five continents, Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies provides several theoretical overviews that suggest viable approaches to conserving biodiversity in these difficult-to-protect areas. From the editors: “Historically, the borders of protected areas have been defined by convenient social, political, or proprietary boundaries rather than by ecological boundaries. Today, many scientists and practitioners are in agreement that the world's biodiversity and other natural resources can best be conserved on an ecosystem or regional scale, which may or may not be consistent with political boundaries. Efforts to protect land on an ecosystem scale have led to the creation of numerous transboundary protected areas, also referred to as international peace parks or transfrontier conservation areas. These areas, which often cross linguistic, socioeconomic, and cultural boundaries as well as national borders, represent regional conservation at its most complex. While many scientists and practitioners promote eco-regional approaches to conservation, many also advocate pursuing conservation goals on local or community scales. Conservationists therefore endeavor to achieve a seemingly incongruous mandate: to pursue top-down (regional) goals using bottom-up (local) approaches.” Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies addresses the vital questions associated with this mandate: Is it reasonable and realistic to approach regional conservation this way? What strategies have been employed to achieve these goals—and how successful have they been? Who benefits from transboundary conservation—and what are the costs? Reflecting the information delivered at the 2001 conference of the Yale chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF), this book provides you with the best answers available at this time. The contributors include social and natural scientists, resource managers, policymakers, and community leaders. Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies brings them together for an interdisciplinary exploration of these questions and other critical issues related to conservation in and around transboundary protected areas. Specific cases that are thoughtfully examined in Transboundary Protected Areas: The Viability of Regional Conservation Strategies include: the public reaction to the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative the ways in which the establishment of southern Africa's existing and proposed Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) can help conserve biodiversity, aid socioeconomic development, and promote international peace development and conservation efforts in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains of southern Africa, which straddle the borderlands between South Africa and Lesotho the cultural aspects of protected area management in Venezuela and Guyana the impact of transfrontier collaboration as evidenced by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) in the Virunga-Bwindi region of Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) how the Nepalese have addressed the problems of poaching, commercial logging, illegal harvesting and smuggling of forest products, and illegal trade of wildlife and wildlife products in the eastern Himalayas by implementing a transboundary biodiversity conservation initiative Helpful maps, tables, and figures make geographical regions and conservation information easy to assimilate.

"Transboundary Policy Challenges" responds to a growing interest in borderlands environmental policy by highlighting significant transboundary research and practices being undertaken within and across the Pacific border regions of North America. Growing concern about the seriousness of environmental problems, particularly in high-growth border areas, coupled with the rising awareness of the complexities entailed in wise development decisions, has spurred recognition that new realities require new responses. Critical for effective environmental protection, restoration, and education is a sharing of understanding and effort across borders. "Transboundary Policy Challenges" advances transborder environmental research and discusses sensible policy directions with particular focus on critical areas of international concern and engagement: land and water use planning; regional growth management; trade and transportation corridors; environmental education; and travel and tourism. Contributors to the volume represent a range of disciplines, as well as institutions in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Migration, nesting, routes, conservation, staging.

A commitment to preserve the cultural heritage of this world, be it in Nepal, India, China, Myanmar, Thailand or Mongolia, is the mission of the Institute of Conservation. In 2004 Gabriela Krist, her colleagues and students, launched the institute's international activities in Nako, 4000m high in the Himalayas, starting a journey that continues to this day. Beyond Borders is the first portrayal to account for not only the professional, but also the personal, human aspects of this mission. The richly illustrated book accompanies the members of the team as they take a broader view, expanding their horizons. For the institute's international conservation work requires not only specialized expertise, but also creativity and flexibility.

Following in the footsteps of Hotspots, Wilderness, Wildlife Spectacles, and Hotspots Revisited, Transboundary Conservation is an essential resource for all those concerned about the future of our environment.

Farming across Borders uses agricultural history to connect the regional experiences of the American West, northern Mexico, western Canada, and the North American side of the Pacific Rim, now writ large into a broad history of the North American West. Case studies of commodity production and distribution, trans-border agricultural labor, and environmental change unite to reveal new perspectives on a historiography traditionally limited to a regional approach. Sterling Evans has curated nineteen essays to explore the contours of “big” agricultural history. Crops and commodities discussed include wheat, cattle, citrus, pecans, chiles, tomatoes, sugar beets, hops, henequen, and more. Toiling over such crops, of course, were the people of the North American West, and as such, the contributing authors investigate the role of agricultural labor, from braceros and Hutterites to women working in the sorghum fields and countless other groups in between. As Evans concludes, “society as a whole (no matter in what country) often ignores the role of agriculture in the past and the present.” Farming across Borders takes an important step toward cultivating awareness and understanding of the agricultural, economic, and environmental connections that loom over the North American West regardless of lines on a map. In the words of one essay, “we are tied together . . . in a hundred different ways.”