Safeguards should be in place to expand the ambit of these areas, says study
Protected areas do safeguard biodiversity. That is the conclusion of an analysis of 80 studies on the efficacy of parks and nature reserves.
Researchers from Monash University in Australia, Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the University of Exeter in the UK, analysed more than 30 years of research work to determine whether they actually protect biodiversity.
The researchers said national parks, nature reserves and other ways of setting land aside to protect species had long been a key strategy in the conservation of biodiversity. They cover nearly 12 per cent of the world’s land surface and are often viewed as one of the biggest conservation success in the past century. However, there was a lot of controversy about the effectiveness of protected areas. Some studies showed that fewer species and lower populations of key species were found inside, compared to outside reserves. Others showed just the opposite. “The level of conflicting evidence was worrying as it made political decisions to protect new areas, often at significant cost, problematic,” says lead author Bernard Coetzee.
Many protected areas remain threatened by underfunding and poor management, as well as illegal logging, poaching, mining, the fossil fuel industry, climate change and other impacts. Worse still, conservationists have recently noted that a number of governments have taken steps to shrink, downgrade, or even abolish entirely some protected areas at the behest of powerful industries.
“We now have hard data that in general protected areas work at biodiversity conservation, but the next step is more action to ensure increased coverage and better safeguards for their long-term maintenance,” says Coetzee. The study was published in August 27 issue of PLOS One.
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