Abstract
Conservationists recognize the value of protected area (PA) systems, with adequate coverage, ecological representation, connection, and management to deliver conservation benefits. Yet, governments primarily focus on coverage, disregarding quantification of the other criteria. While recent studies have assessed global representation and connectivity, they present limitations due to: (1) limited accuracy of the World Database of Protected Areas used, as governments may report areas that do not meet the IUCN or CBD PA definitions or omit subnational PAs, and (2) failure to include human impacts on the landscape in connectivity assessments. We constructed a validated PA database for Tropical Andean Countries (TAC; Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, and Venezuela) and used the existing Protected-Connected-Land (ProtConn) indicator—incorporating the Global Human Footprint as a spatial proxy for human pressure—to evaluate TAC ecoregions’ representation and connectivity. We found that just 27% of ecoregions in the TAC are both protected and connected on more than 17% of their lands. As we included human pressure, we conclude that previous global ProtConn studies overestimate PA connectivity. Subnational PAs are promising for strengthening the representation of PA systems. If nations seek to meet Aichi target 11, or an upcoming post-2020 30% target, further efforts are needed to implement and report subnational conservation areas and appropriately evaluate PA systems.
Highlights
At least 73% of the land surface of the earth has been transformed by human activities [1].Habitat loss, shrinkage, and degradation commonly have negative effects on biodiversity and ecological processes [2,3,4,5], such as the isolation of populations of many wildlife species
Countries (TAC) as our geographical model, our study uses a comprehensive, validated, and updated database of PAs to (1) evaluate how landscape heterogeneity affects the connectivity of PA systems, (2) assess—under this new approach—the region’s performance in achieving 17%, 30%, and 50% of representation and connectivity targets, and (3) determine the contribution of subnational protected areas to protection, representation, and connectivity
17% target), we found that just one out of four ecoregions in the Tropical Andean Countries (TAC) region has more than 17% of land both protected and connected and that, on average, 22% of all ecoregions’ protected land is not well connected
Summary
At least 73% of the land surface of the earth has been transformed by human activities [1].Habitat loss, shrinkage, and degradation commonly have negative effects on biodiversity and ecological processes [2,3,4,5], such as the isolation of populations of many wildlife species (e.g., terrestrial carnivores [6]). As a single PA may seek to protect a remnant of natural or semi-natural habitat or a specific population, well-designed networks of PAs (i.e., an ecologically representative, well-connected, and properly managed system [9,10,11]) can contribute to the persistence of species and ecosystems [2,7,8,12,13]. The Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Aichi Target 11 sets a goal of 17% PA coverage for terrestrial systems, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services [10]. This target explicitly considers equity and effective management, connectivity, and ecological representation as the main criteria to be reached by 2020. Beyond 2020, initiatives including the Global Deal for Nature (GDN)
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