Conservation of The Mediterranean Environment: The Vital Need to Protect and Restore the Quality of National and Cultural Resources in Libya and the Role of Parks and Protected Areas

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight some challenges for the protection of the Mediterranean environment and especially for Libya. In the paper, particular stress is placed on national parks in order:

• 1. to describe the limited role that national parks and protected areas have played and are playing in development, settlement and land use policies and practices in Libya

• 2. to show the pressures or stresses that current development and land use changes are placing on important cultural and natural heritage areas.

• 3. to make some recommendations that would provide for more effective conservation of heritage resources through the establishment, better planning and management of parks and protected areas as a basis for sustainable development in future.