National Parks as Water Sources: Does Governance Contribute to Their Conservation?

Abstract

Natural protected areas (NPA) were enacted with the purpose of conserving the biodiversity they shed, and also for maintaining the environmental service related to aquifer recharge. Within the NPA, the emphasis has been given to the creation of national parks because most of them are located in high mountains whereas water sources originate. Within a region, mountains discharge can represent up to 95% of the basin total amount of runoff. The importance of high mountains as water sources manifested in the 1930s, most of them were declared as national parks, due to the pressure to land-use change. In a survey sent to directors of seventeen Mexican national parks, it was found out that water supply to the downstream towns, was one of the most valuable services national parks provide. Supply that ,however, is threatened by the pollution of the water sources, drought due to climate change, and overall, by the lack of coordination among the multiple levels of governance to allocate economic, political, and legal resources national parks demand to comply with the purposes they were decreed to.