America’s reputation as an international conservation leader is under threat in the wake of unprecedented rollbacks, according to the most comprehensive effort yet to track the erosion of protected wilderness areas and national parks around the world.
The report, published on Thursday in the journal Science, found that the pace of proposed rollbacks in the US has accelerated, with 90% having taken place since 2000. Nearly all of those proposals (99%) were associated with industrial-scale development projects, including infrastructure construction and oil and gas extraction. The report specifically calls out Donald Trump’s downsizing of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, the largest protected area reductions in US history, as highlighting “the increasingly uncertain future of US PAs [protected areas]”.
We must ensure US public lands stay public, or risk ‘demolition of society’
The study, authored by 21 international scientists, warns that US efforts to cut back protections could embolden other countries to follow suit. “The recent legal changes that have scaled back protections in the US are just unprecedented,” said Mike Mascia, a senior vice-president at Conservation International and the report’s senior author. “And they send a dangerous message to the rest of the world.”
In December 2017, Trump slashed the size of Utah’s Bears Ears national monument by 85%, while the nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument was cut by half...