Existing gaps in compensation for lost or downgraded protected areas (PAs) threaten to hamper the achievement of global biodiversity targets, according to a recent paper.
The study, led by researchers at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Biological Sciences and published in the journal Conservation Biology, showed that the loss of PAs is not being compensated by either dedicated offsets or the creation of new protected sites.
“The results indicate that we are losing high-quality PAs that were critical to conserving numerous species, and we are not providing alternative protections. This leads to a degradation of protection, leaving vulnerable species increasingly exposed,” said Roman Carrasco, who co-authored the study.
“While there appears to be partial recovery in terms of area, the quality of restoration across biodiversity metrics such as for birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles remains insufficient.”
Since the 1900s, over 200 million hectares of PAs worldwide have been downgraded, downsized, or degazetted, a phenomenon known as PADDD, which is typically associated with infrastructure and oil and gas development, and exposes previously protected species and ecosystems to extinction risks.
Researchers analysed four marine and 16 terrestrial areas that experienced PADDD events from 2011 to 2020, finding that new PAs as well as offsetting measures, such as increasing the restrictions in existing protected sites, contributed to restoring only 63% of the initial coverage.
Most importantly, these actions fell short of preserving key species and ecosystems, as just 38% of ecoregions and less than a third of threatened species representation were restored, according to the study.
“There is an urgent need to expand PADDD offsets and new PAs to ensure biodiversity losses are recovered,” said co-author Yan Yanyun.
“This will allow us to meet the target [of protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030] set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) with a focus on quality, not just quantity of area covered.”
Currently covering more than 15% of Earth’s terrestrial area, PAs are considered key to advancing biodiversity conservation under the GBF.
However, they often suffer from a lack of funding, which results in poor management, as was recently pointed out by David Cooper, the former executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
In the last few months, some conservation organisations have started advocating for leveraging market-based mechanisms to tackle PADDD events.
The Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA), which is developing a framework for stewardship certificates, told Carbon Pulse in August that its scheme could apply to PAs to ensure these areas are not downsized or downgraded, and can effectively prevent intact lands from being converted to other uses.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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