Whenever we feel a little guilt about the human-mediated destruction of the Earth's natural environments, we can console ourselves by noting the plethora of nature reserves (mainly land-based) created over our globe by governments and other agencies. Studies have, however, demonstrated that biodiversity in at least one third of these reserves is severely depleted by the activities of human visitors and neighbouring folk who illegally exploit the organisms that live there(https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/18/a-third-of-worlds-nature-reserves-severely-degraded-by-human-activity). One is forced to ask the question whether some 'reserves' are there for the benefit of their, often unique, biota or simply designated for cosmetic purposes? Rather obviously, the protections given to animals and plants in 'suffering' reserves need to be intelligently 'beefed up'.
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