Protected areas don’t always boost biodiversity - University of Exeter
Protected areas such as national parks have a "mixed impact" on wildlife, according to the largest ever global study of their effects.
The findings show that managing parks to protect species and their habitats is crucial – and without such management, parks are more likely to be ineffective.
Next month world leaders will gather in China to set the agenda of global conservation efforts for the next decade. Plans to formally protect 30% of the Earth’s surface by 2030 are gathering pace, but the study’s authors say this alone will not guarantee the preservation of biodiversity. They are arguing that targets need to be set for the quality of protected areas, not just the quantity.
The study focussed on waterbirds, examining the impact of 1,500 protected areas (in 68 countries) on more than 27,000 waterbird populations, but the findings are likely to have wider relevance to conservation.
The study was led by the universities of Exeter and Cambridge and is published in the journal Nature.
"We know that protected areas can prevent habitat loss, especially in terms of stopping deforestation," said lead author Dr Hannah Wauchope, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall. However, we have much less understanding of how protected areas help wildlife. Our study shows that, while many protected areas are working well, many others are failing to have a positive effect. Rather than focussing solely on the total global area protected, we need more focus on ensuring areas are well-managed to benefit biodiversity."
The study uses a "before-after-control-intervention" method – comparing waterbird population trends before protected areas were established with trends afterwards, and also comparing the trends of similar waterbird populations inside and outside protected areas. This provided a much more accurate and detailed picture than previous studies.
The paper is entitled: "Protected areas have a mixed impact on waterbirds, but management helps."
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Posted On: 21/04/2022