Durban — President Thabo Mbeki used the opening of the Fifth World Parks Congress last night to drum up support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) "priority plan" to develop the continent's protected areas as a lever for social and economic upliftment.

Mbeki's unexpected arrival at the opening, attended by more than 2500 delegates as well as congress patrons former president Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor of Jordan bore testament to his commitment to Nepad's new African Areas Protected Initiative decided on earlier this year. The initiative seeks to develop a well-managed system of protected areas that would meet the environmental and social needs of all African countries.

Mbeki said the congress theme, Benefits Beyond Boundaries, would look at ways of alleviating the poverty of communities in and around protected areas. He said the world's natural resources and biodiversity were a priceless heritage, which held the key to the many challenges from pharmaceutical properties to strengthening the gene base of SA's basic resources.

Over the next decade, the world of conservation will have to grapple with many thorny issues such as approaches to the commercialisation of national parks, finding middle ground in the comanagement of parks with communities, and creating effective transfrontier protected areas that facilitate regional peace, growth and development. Undoubtedly, one of the most important challenges facing delegates over the next 10 days is formulating an agreement with controversial land use industries, such as the mining and other extractive sectors, to steer clear of protected areas.

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Mohammed Valli Moosa said the congress was timely for Africa, which had prioritised conservation as one of the fundamentals for economic revival across the continent.

The congress will highlight the benefits protected areas bring to people such as the provision of pure water, clean air, buffers to natural disasters, recreation and spiritual wellbeing.

Protected areas cover 12% of the earth's surface nearly 19 million square kilometres, an area the size of the US and China combined. More than 120000 protected areas have been established in 130 countries.

But some areas were protected in name only, and many, even in developed countries, were underfunded, said Klaus Toepfer, the United Nations Environment Programme's executive director.