Protected areas — protected from a greater ‘what’?

Natural environments are assailed on every side through the unprecedentedly rapid expansion of human activities. In the absence of conservation responses of a scope and scale to match the challenge, we shall shortly witness the widespread degradation and destruction of many wildlands and their biotas. Fortunately we still have time, though only just time, to slow and stem the biotic holocaust overtaking the biosphere. But the traditional measures, notably in the form of protected areas, are becoming ever-more limited in their capacity to resist. While we need many more protected areas — better protected too — we shall find there is a much more positive payoff in tackling the tide of environmentally impoverishing human activities, principally through initiatives directed at sustainable development of all environments and all their communities, both human and non-human.