Peace Park
The concept of peace parks ( Peace Park ) is to preserve through cross-border protected areas not only nature and culture, but also a peaceful cooperation between neighboring States to develop and secure. This also means that all border fortifications must be removed so that people and animals can move freely in these areas. Only border systems around these parks are allowed so that uncontrolled border crossings can be prevented. According to information from the Global Transboundary Protected Areas Network , there were 135 Peace Parks in 2007. In contrast to the Peace Parks, there are more than 3,043 as generally defined cross-border protected areas of cultural relevance or for nature and animal protection that do not achieve the rank of Peace Parks.
The areas that are defined as Peace Parks have different names in the respective regions. In German-speaking countries, the Peace Parks are also called Cross-Border Protected Areas and in English-speaking countries, Transboundary Peace Park or Transboundary Protected Area . In Africa, the term Transfrontier Conservations Area (TFCA) or Transfrontier Park (TP) has established itself for this.
First Peace Parks
The first Peace Park in Europe is likely to be the six hectare Morokulien , which was built by the Swedish and Norwegian peace movements on August 16, 1914 on the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of peace on the border between the two countries. Morokulien got its name only in 1959.
The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park , proposed by citizens of Alberta , Canada and Montana in 1931, is generally considered the first Transboundary Peace Park . This park was a symbol of friendship and peace between both states. In 1932, the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament approved the establishment of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, joining two contiguous national parks : Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States. Today the two parks work closely together and protect an important natural landscape.
Europe
In Europe, the Peace Parks were created for different reasons.
In Germany only one national park, the Bavarian Forest National Park , was awarded a Transboundary Park certificate for exemplary cross-border cooperation with the Czech Biosphere Reserve Šumava in 2009. A collaboration developed here after the iron curtain fell.
On Austria's green border , which borders eight countries, there is a cooperation, the Transboundary Cooperation in Nature Conservation along the Austrian Green Border , which primarily pursues nature conservation goals.
A Peace Park project under the working title Green Line Buffer Zone Cyprus aims to mediate between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots in a political conflict.
Africa
In Africa, an initiative to establish peace parks across national borders was only possible after the change in the political situation in South Africa through the end of apartheid policy .
Southern Africa Development Community
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), which was founded on April 1, 1980, was a loose alliance of nine countries in southern Africa, which merged into a more solid organization in Windhoek on August 17, 1992. The aim was to harmonize the socio-economic and political conditions of the member states. The following countries are now members of SADC: Angola , Botswana , Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Namibia , South Africa , Swaziland , Tanzania , Seychelles , Zambia , Zimbabwe , Madagascar and Mauritius . These states included the establishment of Transfrontery Conservations Areas in their political goals. You are now supporting 17 parks in the south of Africa. The Republic of the Congo is not a member of SADC , although it intends to establish a Peace Park, the Maiombe Forest TFCA, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. This also applies to Rwanda and Uganda , which want to establish the Kagera TFCA with Tanzania.
Peace Parks Foundation
The heads of state of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Swaziland were won over in 1997 with the establishment of the Peace Parks Foundation , which has set itself the goal of installing Peace Parks. The South African industrialist Anton Rupert played an important role in the establishment of the company . The primary patron of this initiative was Nelson Mandela .
"" I know of no political movement, no philosophy, no ideology, which does not agree with the peace parks concept as we see it going into fruition today. It is a concept that can be embraced by all. ”German:“ I don't know of any political movement, philosophy or ideology that would not welcome the Peace Parks concept. It's a concept where everyone can join hands. ""
The Foundation oversees ten Peace Parks.
Overview of the Peace Parks
The following overview includes the information currently available about Peace Parks and the participating countries as well as the state of development in southern Africa:
| park | Participating countries | Development status / data | Number of states |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kavango-Zambezi TFCA |
Angola / Botswana / Namibia / Zambia / Zimbabwe |
Contract conclusion: December 7th, 2006 (expected completion 2010) |
5 |
| Great Limpopo TP | Mozambique / South Africa / Zimbabwe | Completion: November 10, 2001 | 3 |
| Greater Mapungubwe TFCA | Botswana / South Africa / Zimbabwe | Completion: September 24, 2004 | 3 |
| Kagera TFCA | Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda | Preliminary negotiations | 3 |
| Lubombo TFCA | Mozambique / South Africa / Swaziland | Conclusion of contract June 22, 2000 | 3 |
| Maiombe Forest TFCA | Angola / Republic of the Congo / Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Preliminary negotiations | 3 |
| ZIMOZA TFCA | Mozambique / Zambia / Zimbabwe | planning phase | 3 |
| ǀAi-ǀAis Richtersveld TP | Namibia / South Africa | Completion: August 17th, 2001 | 2 |
| Chimanimani TFCA | Mozambique / Zimbabwe | Conclusion of contract | 2 |
| Gola NPs | Liberia / Sierra Leone | 2009, National Park 2011 | 2 |
| Iona-Skeleton Coast TFCA | Angola / Namibia | Contract conclusion: August 1, 2003 | 2 |
| Kgaladgadi TP | Botswana / South Africa | Completion: May 2000 | 2 |
| Liuwa Plain-Massuma TFCA | Angola / Zambia | planning phase | 2 |
| Liwonde-Lichinga TFCA | Malawi / Mozambique | Preliminary negotiations | 2 |
| Lower Zambezi-Mana Pool TFCA | Zimbabwe / Zambia | planning phase | 2 |
| Malawi-Zambia FCA | Malawi / Zambia | Contract conclusion: August 13, 2004 | 2 |
| Maloti-Drakensberg TFCA | Lesotho / South Africa | Contract conclusion: June 11, 2001 | 2 |
| Mnazi Bay-Quirimbas TFCMA | Mozambique / Tanzania | planning phase | 2 |
| Niassa-Selous TFCA | Mozambique / Tanzania | planning phase | 2 |
TP: Transfrontier Park
TFCA: Transfrontier Conservation Areas
TFCMA: Transfrontier Conservation Marine Area
Goals and development
In Africa, the Peace Parks should first and foremost enable traditional migrations of animals, access to areas for growing food and drinking water for the locals again. However, with the development of the parks, tourism, economic growth, the migration of the local population and understanding between the states are also promoted.
Intergovernmental agreements and letters of intent have been concluded for the establishment of Peace Parks, which in southern Africa are mostly called Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) . In the meantime four Peace Parks have been realized in the south of Africa, six are secured by state letters of intent and four are in the conception phase.
Existing Peace Parks are the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park , which lies between the borders of Botswana and South Africa; the Ai-Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park , which is located between Namibia and South Africa, and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park , which contains the famous Kruger Park . This park straddles the borders of three states, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and it encompasses land the size of Portugal . The largest park will be the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area , which lies between the five states of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This contract was signed on December 7, 2006 and covers an area of 280,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Italy. This project was supported with funding of 800,000 euros from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development . The park was formally built on August 19, 2011.
The initiatives for Peace Parks now extend far beyond southern Africa. Another multi-state park between Sierra Leone and Liberia was implemented as the Transboundary Peace Park from 2009 and opened on December 3, 2011 as the Gola Forest National Park in Sierra Leone with 750 km². The development of the peace parks in southern Africa is most advanced. A total of 32 park projects in central and southern Africa are mapped on the website of the Peace Park Foundation.
North and South America
North America
The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park , the 1932 between the borders of the United States and Canada is built, was the first International Peace Park , the two national parks in different countries joined the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and the Glacier National Park in the UNITED STATES. This union was more of a symbolic act intended to express friendship and peaceful relations between two countries. The same applies to the Peace Arch Park , which stretches across the Canadian province of British Columbia and the US state of Washington . The International Peace Garden extends from the US state of North Dakota to the Canadian province of Manitoba .
In the USA there is the Big Bend National Park , which extends to the Rio Grande and thus borders the nature reserves Maderas del Carmen and Cañon de Santa Elena on the Mexican side . The park rangers have an exchange program, so there is no way for visitors to cross the border. Further cooperation is sought and since the end of 2009 there have been considerations at the intergovernmental level to merge the parks into a US Mexico International Park .
An international, cross-border Bering Strait Peace Initiative has been launched to design a transport link between the USA and Russia over the Bering Strait . The architecture competition program also includes the development of a Peace Park on the Diomedes Islands , which are in the middle of the Bering Strait.
Middle and South America
In 1988, on the initiative of UNESCO , the states of Costa Rica and Panama declared the Parque Internacional La Amistad, located between their borders, an international peace park.
In 1998, due to unclear border regulations, the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border war broke out in the Cordillera del Condor in the form of skirmishes that were resolved by the establishment of a Peace Park. The conflict was ended with a peace treaty following intervention by Argentina , Brazil , Chile and the USA . The peace treaty was linked to the establishment and connection of two cross-border nature reserves, the El Cóndor National Park in Ecuador and the Santiago Comaina Conservation Area in Peru .
Asia
In Asia there are several peace park initiatives that are located in disputed regions, such as the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and in the South China Sea for the Spratly Islands , to which six states are making claims.
On the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram at an altitude of 6,400 meters above sea level, armed forces from India and Pakistan face each other in the so-called Siachen conflict . For this purpose, there has been a written concept for a Siachen Peace Park since 2003 , which is intended to enable demilitarization of this area.
In the Middle East between Israel and Jordan there is a joint Peace Park in the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea by a treaty signed October 26, 1994. In this contract the protection of an 11 kilometer long coral reef was agreed, of which 7 kilometers are in Jordanian and 4 kilometers in Israeli sea area.
See also
- Memorial sites that commemorate wars, civil wars or the dropping of atomic bombs within a country are also called Peace Park: Peace Park (Nagasaki) , Peace Park Tasitolu in East Timor .
- Friedenspark (disambiguation page)
literature
- Ali H. Saalem: Peace Parks. Conserverations and Conflict Resolutions. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2007, ISBN 978-0-262-01235-5 Online Google Books (English)
Web links
- Martin Pabst: Cross-border Peace Parks on safri.de (PDF; 315 kB)
- Peace Parks Foundation (English)
- UNEP-WCMC Website: Transboundary Protected Areas (English)
- Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution (English)
- With the Peace Parks to southern Africa without borders
- Conference proceedings of the University of Cologne
- From Military to buffer Transboundary Peace Park: The case of Korea and Cyprus (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ World Commission on Protected Areas: Transboundary Protected Areas for Peace and Co-operation (PDF; 1.3 MB), 2001
- ^ Information on the official website of the Transboundary Peace Parks , accessed January 1, 2009
- ↑ List of cross-border areas for download (PDF; 263 kB), accessed on January 3, 2010
- ↑ information on the website of morokline.de , accessed 3 January 2010
- ↑ Information on the website peaceparks2007.org ( memento of the original dated August 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 1, 2010
- ↑ Europark Federation: Certified Parks ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Transboundary Cooperation at bfn.de (PDF; 2.6 MB), accessed on January 1, 2010
- ↑ Information on america-reloaded.de ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 2, 2010
- ↑ http://www.sadc.int/ website of sadc.int
- ↑ Nelson Mandela, October 21, 2001
- ↑ a b An overview of the planned and already existing Transfrontier Conservation Areas ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 20, 2013
- ↑ Greater Mapungubwe TFCA on peaceparks.org , accessed January 4, 2010
- ↑ a b Gola Rainforest National Park: UNEP welcomes the opening of Sierra Leone's second national park , UNEP, December 3, 2011, accessed on December 26, 2013.
- ↑ Liuwa Plain-Massuma FTCA on peaceparks.org , accessed January 4, 2010
- ^ Lower Zambezi-Mana Pool FTCA on peacerks.org , accessed January 4, 2010
- ↑ Website of the Ai-Ais-Fiversveld Transfrontier Park ( Memento of the original from June 9th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 1, 2010
- ↑ Website of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 1, 2010
- ↑ Superpark KAZA now approved . Allgemeine Zeitung, August 22, 2011 ( Memento from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Information on peaceparks.org , accessed on December 6, 2010
- ↑ Information on iloveparks.com ( Memento of the original from July 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 23, 2010
- ^ Project: Interconnection & communication in the Bering Strait of the Foundation for Peace and Unification (FPU) , accessed on January 2, 2010
- ↑ Martín Alcalde, Carlos F. Ponce, Yanitza Curonisy: Peace Parks in the Cordillera del Cóndor Mountain Range and Biodiversity Conservation Corridor on Wilsoncenter.org ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 640 kB), accessed on January 3, 2010
- ↑ David Sheppard et al. (2001): Transboundary. World Commission of Protected Areas (WCPA). Protected Areas for Peace and Co-Operation. P. 9 (PDF; 1.3 MB), accessed on January 3, 2010
- ^ Concept of the 5th World Parks Congress (Durban / South Africa) for a Siachen Peace Park from 12.-13. September 2003 , accessed January 3, 2010
- ^ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Gulf of Aquaba-Environment , accessed January 23, 2010
- ↑ David Sheppard et al. (2001): Transboundary. World Commission of Protected Areas (WCPA). Protected Areas for Peace and Co-Operation. P. 11 (PDF; 1.3 MB), accessed on January 3, 2010
