Does efficient conservation planning require anticipating changing targets of protected area coverage?
Final Report Abstract
Global biodiversity targets have driven one of the largest expansion of protected area coverage worldwide. There is, however, no scientific evidence that the ongoing loss of biodiversity will be halted once the areal component of global targets is met. Specific location of protected areas, the full range of biodiversity they contain, and adequate management is much more important for successful conservation than a specific protected area coverage. In recognition of these requirements, Aichi target 11 calls for protected areas to be “effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected”. These aspects of the target have received little attention so far, mostly because of a lack of adequate indicators to measure progress towards these goals. Our project closes part of this gap by proposing a way to evaluate the representativeness of protected area networks over time. We find that ecological regions are unequally represented in the global marine protected area system with little progress made in the last 35 years. Given limited funds for conservation, and increasing human pressure on ecosystems, habitats, and species worldwide, it is imperative that conservation investments are made as strategically and costefficient as possible. Our results show that historical development of the global marine protected area network has been far from this. If strategic expansion of the network started in 1982, rather than 2016, the total cost of a fully representative global protected area system would be halved. Global conservation targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity may stimulate further increases of the global protected area network. If such expansion is to safeguard biodiversity into the future, new protected areas must be placed more strategically than it was the case in until now. The development of post-Aichi global conservation targets provides the opportunity to account for elements such as ecological representation along with credible metrics more explicitly.
