Does efficient conservation planning require anticipating changing targets of protected area coverage?

• Applicant: Dr. Kerstin Jantke
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2016 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 323395180

The need to conserve biodiversity in protected areas is widely acknowledged. However, the required spatial coverage of reserves to halt biodiversity loss is unknown. Global targets vary from 10 percent protected area coverage of each of the world's biomes (Third World National Parks Congress, 1982) and 12 percent protection of the global land area (United Nations, 1987) to the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi target 11 calling for at least 17 percent of terrestrial and inland water, and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas under protection. There is, however, no scientific evidence that the ongoing loss of biodiversity will be halted or even reverted by means of the enforcement of any of the proposed targets. Therefore, further upward revisions of protected area coverage targets might be required in the future. Certainly, changing targets of protected area coverage challenge existing conservation plans and cause inefficient decision-making on spatial conservation priorities. This project investigates to what extent conservation plans developed under the Aichi target 11 coincide with plans that are based on higher targets of protected area coverage. Furthermore, it analyses whether and how priorities of possible future conservation plans could be used to adapt conservation action now. Spatial, statistical and optimization methods from systematic conservation planning are applied to address this research gap in conservation biology.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Australia
• Host: Professor Dr. Hugh Possinhgam