We live in a particularly challenging and ambiguous moment in human environmental history. It would appear that today no region of the world remains free from an array of fundamentally serious ecological threats. We used to think that places such as the polar regions or uncharted areas of the wet tropics could claim a degree of invulnerability to major human environmental impacts. The spectors of global atmospheric change, ever more ingenious forms of human encroachment, and developments in extraction technological, however, have largely eliminated such comforting thoughts. Perhaps only the newly discovered deep-sea trenches and their associated life can still claim to be largely beyond the realm of serious anthropogenic perturbation.
The Value of Life: Biological Diversity And Human Society
by Stephen R. Kellert
http://www.yale.edu/sangha/PDF_FILES/ENGLISH_.PDF/SEC._3/KELLERT.PDF
Section III: Institutions and Approaches to Conservation in the Sangha River Region
Although human-induced environmental impacts affect systems around the globe, the Sangha River region remains an area of tremendous diversity and ecological wealth. Currently, the region is faced with numerous challenges, including: (1) development of an adequate bioregional approach that incorporates all three nations (Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic) and all levels of governance, from local to national; (2) involvement of all stakeholders in a meaningful, effective, and sustainable management decision process; (3) adequate scientific information databases in both biotic and abiotic resources to assist in establishing fundamental understanding of the environment and systems involved; (4) development of appropriate strategies for protected area design, management, and implementation; (5) development of sustainable consumptive (e.g. timber extraction) and non-consumptive (e.g. eco-tourism) resource management systems; (6) evaluation and articulation of values and attitudes of all stakeholders toward biodiversity and ecological integrity of the forest.