FRANÇOIS BOURLIÈRE
FRANÇOIS BOURLIÈRE is President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. He is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris and also lectures on animal ecology at the Faculty of Sciences. This article is reprinted from the Unesco Courier.
IS IT PURE CHANCE or a happy omen? After centuries during which jealously guarded frontiers were the most obvious outward sign of "territorial behavior" on a national scale and the living symbol of an absence of understanding between peoples, the last few years have brought us face to face with a curious phenomenon. On every continent and even in Europe, where friction and open discord have been at their bitterest, there is a growing number of "protected zones" astride the frontiers of two or even three neighboring states.
In general, they occur in regions outstanding for their spectacular scenery, for their "natural monuments" and the special plants and animals that abound there. These regions have rapidly become great centers of attraction for tourists and have now joined the special localities in the world into which flock young people of every nationality. Within a few years a place that was once a barrier may become a meeting place.
All that is required is for parks established by two neighboring states across their common frontier to co-ordinate their programs of preservation and planning, and also for traffic controls to be organized at the entrances to protected zones, for everything to change very rapidly. Roads that were once the preserve of customs officials and frontier guards become increasingly used by people in civilian clothes - townspeople on holiday. Shelters and youth hostels gradually replace guard posts and customs houses. Tourists from both sides of the frontier discover, with surprise, how alike they are and that they possess a common heritage. Gradually, the wall becomes a bridge.
Which are today's main "protected zones" astride the frontier regions of two or three neighboring states? In Europe, the oldest and perhaps the most famous is on the frontier between Poland and Czechoslovakia where the Tatras national park adjoins the Czech reserve bearing the same name. Both parks together form a natural region as spectacular for the tourist as it is of interest to the naturalist.
ALAIN GILLE
In a wonderful setting of forests and mountains, specimens of almost all the great carnivora which have disappeared from the rest of the European continent, the brown bear, the wolf, lynx and wild cat, are free to live far from all interference. On mountain ridges, chamois and royal eagles are to be found today as in the past. Rare black storks nest regularly in the valleys. A fact of outstanding importance is that administrators of the Polish and Czech parks hold working meetings together at regular intervals and the numbering of game as well as the arrangement of tourist itineraries are organized in common.
PARCO NAZIONALE GRAN PARADISO
Almost as interesting a region is to be found on the Franco-Italian frontier in the western Alps. In 1922 the former Aosta royal hunt was transformed into the Parco Nazionale del Gran Paradiso, famous throughout the world for its herds of ibex and chamois. This park was the only ibex reserve in the Alps and was the center from which this species was reintroduced gradually into Switzerland and France.
Since 1963, the Parc national français de la Vanoise has shared a common frontier with the earlier established Italian park. The ibex and chamois can now pass in and out of these magnificent mountain regions and out of reach of the rapacious hand of the poacher whose depredations have, until now, prevented the natural revival of the Capra ibex in the French Alps.
The Spanish Parque Nacional de Ordesa has been in existence for a long time. It is situated in one of the wildest and most picturesque regions, of the central Pyrenees. Those in France concerned with the preservation of wild life hope that before long a national park in the Pyrenees will be established on the northern side of the frontier. This would ensure that the famous Cirque de Gavarnie is protected from vandalism. If this second reserve can be established reasonably quickly and if the area of the Parque de Ordesa can be enlarged even slightly, the future of the brown bear, of the izard or wild goat, and of several predatory creatures in the Pyrenees will be finally assured.
H. HEIMPEL
In another setting far from the great chains of mountains that lend themselves better than anywhere else to the establishment of national parks and recreational areas, another fine example of international co-operation for the protection of areas of refuge for threatened animals is found in the protected zones of the forest of Bielowecza on the Soviet-Polish frontier.
This magnificent primeval forest with its fine oaks, lime and fir trees, all that is left of the European virgin forests, has always been particularly well looked after by the Polish preservers of wild life and by naturalists. It was here that the last herd of European wild bison found refuge and it was also here that this interesting ungulate was saved from complete extinction. In 1952, when there was a stock of beasts large enough to maintain the species, the first herd was freed. They now roam the great forest lands.
In spite of territorial changes following the second world war when the Soviet-Polish frontier was made to pass through the middle of the forest, preservation of wild life has continued to develop. The Government; of the U.S.S.R. at that time created a reserve to cover the part of the forest on its side of the frontier. Hundreds of thousands of tourists each year now visit this wild region.
Next to Europe, tropical Africa contains the greatest) number of protected zones lying astride neighboring; state frontiers. The most spectacular region in Africa, is the area surrounding Lake Edward containing the Albert national park and the Queen Elizabeth national park situated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Rwanda and in Uganda. This area contains examples of almost all the natural surroundings of the Ethiopian region.
With an area of some 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) these two national parks include an astonishingly varied countryside such as the glaciers of Ruwenzori, the incandescent lava lake of Nyiragongo, the rain forests of the Ituri, the savannah land of the tree-euphorbia in the plains of Rwindi-Rutschuru and the country bordering the Kazinga channel. Some of the most spectacular animal species live there, often in densely populated herds including mountain gorilla, chimpanzee, elephant, hippopotamus, forest and savannah buffalo, okapi, topis, water buck and Uganda cob. There are few areas in Africa where so much wild life can be seen in the course of a journey involving so few miles.
RINEY
An area made up of the Serengeti national park and the Mara reserve situated further to the east and astride the frontier between Tanzania and Kenya also constitutes a unique ecological region but very different from the one just described. Livestock, including over a million zebra, wildebeest, Grant and Thomson gazelle, in addition to quite a considerable number of giraffe, black rhinoceros and, of course, carnivora (lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena, jackal and others) live in these immense plains and emigrate with the movement of the rainbelts.
A few miles away, the giant Ngorongoro crater provides us with one of the natural wonders of the world, while the Gorge of the Olduvai contains a unique sequence of fossilized deposits from homo habilis and Zinjanthorope to homo sapiens. Nowhere else on earth provides more data on the complex history of the emergence of man in the world.
The "W" national park of the Niger (named after its W-shaped form) in west Africa, lying astride the three frontiers of Niger, Upper Volta and Dahomey, is, to some extent, a kind of western counterpart of the two spectacular regions of east Africa just described. Considerable herds of elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, antelope and cob as well as the great carnivora are found there.
FAO-FREGOSI
There are at present not many "protected zones" astride international frontiers in America. On the Canadian-United States frontier the area made up of the Glacier national park and Waterton national park is an exception and it bears a propitious name, the International Peace park. Species of the great temperate mountain fauna, from the giant grizzly bear to the white Rocky Mountain goat live here in a majestic setting of high mountain ranges. With a little patience and luck one can sometimes approach to within a few meters of the timid mountain goats.
VIDESOTT
FRAZER-BRUNNER
Unfortunately, in Latin America the protection of wild life has not reached the same stage of development as in other countries. There are, however, encouraging signs of future collaboration between people interested in wild life protection in the various countries. Brazil and Argentina have established two adjoining national parks around the famous Iguassu falls with an area of 640,000 acres (252,000 hectares) which will ensure the protection of not only the incomparable falls themselves but also the interesting forest fauna and flora of this part of the temperate tropics.
It is to be hoped that this first example of concern for wild life will be followed by others, particularly by Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador in the Andes mountains. Here, the mountain forest areas and the strange paremos, or mountain plateaus, are deteriorating at an alarming rate.
We may wonder why national parks are not found well within countries rather than in frontier areas, which in fact facilitates the joint development and exploitation of potential wealth from the tourist trade and the natural resources in these frontier regions.
There are at least two reasons for this. Frontiers between states often correspond with natural barriers, particularly high mountain chains which have always been relatively underpopulated and where there is little agricultural and industrial development. It is, therefore, not surprising that natural vegetation and wild animal life should be better preserved in such economically marginal areas.
But this is not always the case. Sometimes nature takes advantage of man's hostility toward his neighbor. It is not difficult to find examples of countries where extensive forest and plain with their fauna, wet lands and islands owe their prolonged protection to the restrictions on movement by people as well as on land development imposed by military and customs regulations.
By a curious irony of fate, human antagonism has in this case served the cause of wild life. It is for generations to come to seize the opportunity of ensuring the continued existence of the countryside and natural monuments which owe their survival to their ancestors' mutual suspicion in times past.
