Environmental protection vital to reducing natural disaster
impact... Bonn, May 20, 2008 – Environmental degradation is a
key factor turning extreme weather events into natural
disasters, a new WWF report has found. WWF is urging governments
to create suitable protected areas and to maintaining natural
ecosystems, such as coastal mangroves, coral reefs, floodplains
and forest, that may help buffer against natural hazards.
Natural Security: Protected Areas and Hazard Mitigation,
prepared with environmental research group Equilibrium, examines
in detail the impacts of floods in Bangladesh (2000), Mozambique
(2000 and 2001) and Europe (2006), heat waves and forest fires
in Portugal (2003), an earthquake in Pakistan (2005) and the
Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina in the USA
(2005) in illustrating the natural disaster prevention and
mitigation potential of environmental conservation. “It is
deforestation and floodplain development that most often links
high rainfall to devastating floods and mudsl