Planning for the Preservation of Nature

There has to be some sort of planning process if nature is to be protected from the ravages of constant usage. The planning is normally undertaken at national level with the involvement of central government and other organizations. Normally what happens is that the people concerned will have a view to manage the crisis that arises when nature is not used appropriately.

However they sometimes lack the strategic vision that will entail the long term future of the scheme and the people working within the community. The planners do not concentrate on making the protection of nature a national priority. Rather they deal with local issues that may arise from time to time. This is not the type of strategy that gives the people confidence that their leaders are taking nature seriously.

One can take the example of planning permission for buildings within the cities. It is absolutely shocking that some people are allowed to build on water tables and even nature reserves. It is all too easy to lay the blame at the feet of unfettered corruption but there has to be an element of ignorance in this. After all it takes the auspices of the community to work out a strategy for securing their own nature reserves. Those who build on the water tables have to take some responsibility in addition to the standard blame game that occurs within the higher echelons of the administrative structure when problems become apparent. It should be a matter of national pride that nature reserves are maintained and protected.

Nature Reserves

There is an element of enforcement that sometimes defeats the authorities in their efforts to protect nature. For example powerful elements within the governments will flaunt the laws and give the rest of the community a very bad example which forms the basis of their rebellion against planning laws. The thinking in this is that there is one rule for all the people in the community and no one element should be allowed to blatantly disregard the rules in favor of their own selfish motives. If the big shots are breaking the law with impunity then the ordinary person will find no incentive to follow the rules that have been set.

This is not to say that nature is a dead end scheme that does not generate income for the government. On the contrary there are economies which are totally reliant on the provision of tourism in order to support their budgets. For these countries the nature reserves ought to be a valuable resource that is protected with diligence. Instead they ignore the planning requirement of the strategy and merely concentrate on extracting as much utility as possible from the nature that is within their borders. After a limited period of time the nature reserves will be completely exhausted and the nation will go back to square one. It is this type of short sighted attitude that his keeping many nations within the firm grasp of poverty.