Abstract
Habitat loss imperils species both locally and globally, so protection of intact habitat is critical for slowing the rate of biodiversity decline. Globally, more than 150,000 protected areas have been designated with a goal of protecting species and ecosystems, but whether they can continue to achieve this goal as human impacts escalate is unknown. Here we show that in South Asia, one of the world's major growth epicentres, the trajectory of habitat conversion rates inside protected areas is indistinguishable from that on unprotected lands, and habitat conversion rates do not decline following gazettement of a protected area. Moreover, a quarter of the land inside South Asia's protected areas is now classified as human modified. If the global community is to make significant progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target on protected areas, there is an urgent need both to substantially enhance management of these protected areas and to develop systematic conservation outside the formal protected area system.
Highlights
Since the last ice age, around 75% of the natural vegetation across the planet has been cleared or otherwise dominated by human activity [1,2]
The loss of natural habitat is widely forecasted to continue with a further 10 million km2 of natural habitat predicted to be converted for agriculture by 2050 [9] and many biodiversity hotspots decreasing by more than 50% over the century [10]
Occupying 12.7% of the Earth’s land surface [12], protected areas are generally considered effective at abating habitat conversion and biodiversity loss [13,14,15,16,17]
Summary
Since the last ice age, around 75% of the natural vegetation across the planet has been cleared or otherwise dominated by human activity [1,2]. This has precipitated a global biodiversity crisis in which rates of species extinction far exceed background predictions [3,4,5,6,7], and the consequent impacts upon human well-being are becoming apparent [8]. As the human population increases, pressures on habitats are intensifying with unknown consequences for protected area effectiveness [18]
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