National parks spark population growth! ...human populations

Darkfrog submitted, created time 4 months 1 week (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

Despite what critics, proponents, common sense and a proportionate number of the planets 8-balls would have told us, national parks in developing countries are GOOD for people but BAD for animals.

It doesn't make sense on the surface. Opponents of national parks in poor areas have argued that people shouldn't be barred access to traditional hunting grounds, but demographic studies show that human population growth near park borders increases faster than in other places--it implies that people are moving there for the jobs and aid that go hand-in-hand with park placement.

At the same time, animals and wood are disappearing from the parks. I suspect that this is less a matter of the parks being there and more a matter of incomplete enforcement...

So now that the "parks are bad for people" idea has been debunked, how do we make them good for animals?

Keywords: parks endangered species economics demographics human populations migrations ecology politics