A map of the world, or of any continent (except Australia), is a patchwork quilt of countries of various sizes and shapes. Sometimes they have boundaries that make geographical sense. Other times, the boundaries are straight lines, imposed by colonial powers centuries ago. Today, territorial integrity is a foundation principle of the relations between governments, but even so, boundary conflicts are still unresolved in many parts of the world. This book demonstrates how transboundary conservation initiatives can help to defuse boundary conflicts, and sometimes even solve them. But given the hundreds of transboundary protected areas, some variability in management approaches is to be expected, and is even appropriate. Often, it is a matter of balancing national security with the undoubted benefits of having free transboundary movement of tourists between protected areas on either side of a national border.
This book discusses management and security considerations that should be foremost in the minds of those who are responsible for transboundary conservation areas. One of the major advantages of such areas is that the effective size of protected areas is greatly expanded, thereby increasing both populations and potential species numbers, as the larger a protected area is, the more species it is likely to contain. Yet the free movement of species across international boundaries also poses some problems. While animals can certainly not be expected to recognize what country controls the vegetation they are browsing or the tree in which they are perching, they may also be carrying some problems with them, such as diseases like avian influenza or foot-and-mouth-disease. And invasive alien species that have become established in a protected area in one country may expand their populations into another, thereby providing management challenges to both parts of a transboundary conservation area. This book contains suggestions on how to address such issues.
