Ensuring National Parks Worldwide Are Protected-Saving Biodiversity

                             Biodiversity is collapsing as species after species becomes extinct or teeters towards extinction. It is called the sixth extinction, and it will not be avoided by ignoring it or by living in a dream world of lofty expectations divorced from reality. Loss of habitat, which is acknowledged as being the greatest driver of this extinction, is accelerating, not slowing.
                              This is a crisis that must move beyond the puny effort of a few private organizations. Besides the multiplicity of reasons why conservation organizations fail, the fact remains that even if most were entirely altruistic and not self serving, they are completely inadequate for the task at hand. The task at hand should be to save as much habitat as possible that contains the highest degree of biodiversity. Not only because such an effort is in the best interest of nature and wildlife, but because it is also in the best interest of people. People need to eat, breathe unpolluted air, be protected from the elements, drink clean fresh water. Destroying rainforests, coral reefs, mangroves, and other wilderness areas goes against these basic needs. Fish and other marine life, the most important food source for hundreds of millions of people, if not billions, need mangroves, coral reefs, clean oceans, rivers, lakes and waters.
                                One of humanity's best ideas, said by some to be the national park system, needs to be expanded worldwide to protect mangroves, coral reefs, rainforests and other wilderness areas. This must be an international effort by non corrupt governments that will assist third world countries that my not have the resources to protect their environment.
                                  National parks must mean something. They cannot continue to be what they are in far too many third word countries- namely parks on paper where the wildlife is decimated, along with the habitat. Governments must work cooperatively to ensure that resources are made available to secure and protect new and existing national parks worldwide, nature and marine reserves, and not just in the confines of a few developed countries. It is not enough that the national park system works in the United States and some other countries. It needs to work worldwide, especially in third world countries where the greatest amount of biodiversity exists.
                                    Protection means securing the boundaries of the parks and reserves, and making sure there is no encroachment by development interests, including logging, mining, tourist development, and so forth. Protection means ensuring that the parks are adequately patrolled and that wildlife is safe from hunting, trapping, and capture for the live trade in wildlife.
                                      The more humanity secures and protects nature, the more it ensures its own survival.