Peace parks.

• Author: Holston, Mark

THE CONCEPT WAS BORN amidst the craggy, glacier-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains that cut through the most remote and under-populated region along the shared border of Canada and the United States. In the early twentieth century, each country had already established its own national park on either side of the boundary, in an area locals call the "Crown of the Continent." Civic leaders in both nations, however, believed that the existence of the side-by-side parks presented a unique opportunity to celebrate the longstanding friendship between neighbors.

In 1931, members of the service club organization Rotary International formalized the idea, declaring that Glacier National Park in the United States and Waterton National Park in Canada should be jointly recognized as a "peace park." The logic of their argument quickly won supporters at the highest levels of government in both countries. Just a year later, the Canadian Parliament and the US Congress passed laws to establish the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park on the border of the state of Montana and the province of Alberta--the first of its kind in the world.

Three quarters of a century later, the wisdom of such an idea has become even more evident. As countries struggle with how to balance the economic development of natural resources with conservation needs, the effective management of still-intact natural areas has become imperative. When those areas straddle international borders, opportunities are usually present to broaden and strengthen ties between nations.

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The idea, as demonstrated by the Waterton-Glacier model, is simple enough. Each country maintains control over the day-to-day administration of its park while personnel work collaboratively on scientific research and practical efforts to protect flora and fauna, water quality, and other natural features. Late last year, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of Waterton-Glacier, national park officials and researchers from around the world gathered to share information on how the peace park movement has grown over the years.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one of the primary organizations involved in promoting the concept, there are currently 666 protected areas in the transboundary regions of 113 countries. To date, few reflect the high level of institutional recognition and interagency cooperation exhibited by Waterton-Glacier...