Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity
Abstract
The Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, announced in September 2003 that the global network of protected areas now covers 11.5% of the planet's land surface. This surpasses the 10% target proposed a decade earlier, at the Caracas Congress, for 9 out of 14 major terrestrial biomes. Such uniform targets based on percentage of area have become deeply embedded into national and international conservation planning. Although politically expedient, the scientific basis and conservation value of these targets have been questioned. In practice, however, little is known of how to set appropriate targets, or of the extent to which the current global protected area network fulfils its goal of protecting biodiversity. Here, we combine five global data sets on the distribution of species and protected areas to provide the first global gap analysis assessing the effectiveness of protected areas in representing species diversity. We show that the global network is far from complete, and demonstrate the inadequacy of uniform--that is, 'one size fits all'--conservation targets.
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Protected areas offer inadequate coverage of the ranges of threatened birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles at continental and global scales.
“However, analysis of threatened birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles at both continental and global scales suggests that protected areas offer inadequate coverage of the ranges of these groups (De Klerk et al., ; Rodrigues et al., ; Beresford et al., a,b; Butchart et al., ).”
From A mix of community-based conservation and protected forests is needed for the survival of the Endangered pygmy hippopotamus<i>Choeropsis liberiensis</i> (2017) · cites this paper as Rodrigues et al., 2004
The Results (p. 3) report that 20% of threatened species analysed had no overlap with a protected area, supporting inadequate coverage at the global scale. The Data section (p. 4) shows that the reptile data cover only freshwater turtles and tortoises, and the paper describes a global analysis rather than a continental-scale one. This source therefore does not support the claim's full taxonomic and geographic scope. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 8
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- Authors
- Rodrigues, A. S. L., Andelman, S. J., Bakarr, M. I., Boitani, L., Brooks, T. M., Cowling, R. M., Fishpool, L. D. C., da Fonseca, G. A. B., Gaston, K. J., Hoffmann, M., Long, J. S., Marquet, P. A., Pilgrim, J. D., Pressey, R. L., Schipper, J., Sechrest, W., Stuart, S. N., Underhill, L. G., Waller, R. W., Watts, M. E. J., & Yan, X.
- Affiliations
- Conservation International (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- World Agroforestry Centre (KE)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- Nelson Mandela University (ZA)
- BirdLife international (GB)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
- University of Idaho (US)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Rodrigues, Ana S. L.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2004-04
- Volume
- 428
- Issue
- 6983
- Pages
- 640-643
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2103819062
- Cited by
- 1,525
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 56 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 65 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 90 · 2019: 78 · 2018: 80 · 2017: 97 · 2016: 79 · 2015: 81 · 2014: 85 · 2013: 74 · 2012: 77
- FWCI
- 51.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- ResearchOnline - JCU (James Cook University) (submittedVersion)
- EPubDev Repository (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- IRIS Research product catalog (Sapienza University of Rome) (submittedVersion)
- RUNE (Research UNE) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Keywords
- protected area network, biodiversity conservation targets, terrestrial biomes, conservation effectiveness
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Conservation of Natural Resources, Geography, International Cooperation, Species Specificity, Time Factors, Biodiversity
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