A global-level assessment of the effectiveness of protected areas at resisting anthropogenic pressures
University of Cambridge · Conservation Leadership Programme · +4 more institutions
Abstract
One-sixth of the global terrestrial surface now falls within protected areas (PAs), making it essential to understand how far they mitigate the increasing pressures on nature which characterize the Anthropocene. In by far the largest analysis of this question to date and not restricted to forested PAs, we compiled data from 12,315 PAs across 152 countries to investigate their ability to reduce human pressure and how this varies with socioeconomic and management circumstances. While many PAs show positive outcomes, strikingly we find that compared with matched unprotected areas, PAs have on average not reduced a compound index of pressure change over the past 15 y. Moreover, in tropical regions average pressure…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 34.44
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 58
Authors
5- JGJonas GeldmannCorresponding
University of Cambridge, Conservation Leadership Programme
- AMAndrea Manica
University of Cambridge
- NDNeil D. Burgess
University of Copenhagen, UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, University of Cambridge, Natural History Museum Aarhus, Conservation Leadership Programme
- LCLauren Coad
UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Center for International Forestry Research
- ABAndrew Balmford
University of Cambridge, Conservation Leadership Programme
Topics & keywords
- Counterfactual thinking
- Socioeconomic status
- Environmental science
- Geography
- Environmental resource management
- Natural resource economics
- Economics
- Psychology
- Life in Land