TY - JOUR
T1 - Shortfalls and Solutions for Meeting National and Global Conservation Area Targets
AU - Butchart, Stuart H M
AU - Clarke, Martin
AU - Smith, Robert J.
AU - Sykes, Rachel E.
AU - Scharlemann, Jörn P W
AU - Harfoot, Mike
AU - Buchanan, Graeme M.
AU - Angulo, Ariadne
AU - Balmford, Andrew
AU - Bertzky, Bastian
AU - Brooks, Thomas M.
AU - Carpenter, Kent E.
AU - Comeros-Raynal, Mia T.
AU - Cornell, John
AU - Ficetola, G. Francesco
AU - Fishpool, Lincoln D C
AU - Fuller, Richard A.
AU - Geldmann, Jonas
AU - Harwell, Heather
AU - Hilton-Taylor, Craig
AU - Hoffmann, Michael
AU - Joolia, Ackbar
AU - Joppa, Lucas
AU - Kingston, Naomi
AU - May, Ian
AU - Milam, Amy
AU - Polidoro, Beth
AU - Ralph, Gina
AU - Richman, Nadia
AU - Rondinini, Carlo
AU - Segan, Daniel B.
AU - Skolnik, Benjamin
AU - Spalding, Mark D.
AU - Stuart, Simon N.
AU - Symes, Andy
AU - Taylor, Joseph
AU - Visconti, Piero
AU - Watson, James E M
AU - Wood, Louisa
AU - Burgess, Neil D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2015/9
Y1 - 2015/9
N2 - Governments have committed to conserving ≥17% of terrestrial and ≥10% of marine environments globally, especially "areas of particular importance for biodiversity" through "ecologically representative" Protected Area (PA) systems or other "area-based conservation measures", while individual countries have committed to conserve 3-50% of their land area. We estimate that PAs currently cover 14.6% of terrestrial and 2.8% of marine extent, but 59-68% of ecoregions, 77-78% of important sites for biodiversity, and 57% of 25,380 species have inadequate coverage. The existing 19.7 million km2 terrestrial PA network needs only 3.3 million km2 to be added to achieve 17% terrestrial coverage. However, it would require nearly doubling to achieve, cost-efficiently, coverage targets for all countries, ecoregions, important sites, and species. Poorer countries have the largest relative shortfalls. Such extensive and rapid expansion of formal PAs is unlikely to be achievable. Greater focus is therefore needed on alternative approaches, including community- and privately managed sites and other effective area-based conservation measures.
AB - Governments have committed to conserving ≥17% of terrestrial and ≥10% of marine environments globally, especially "areas of particular importance for biodiversity" through "ecologically representative" Protected Area (PA) systems or other "area-based conservation measures", while individual countries have committed to conserve 3-50% of their land area. We estimate that PAs currently cover 14.6% of terrestrial and 2.8% of marine extent, but 59-68% of ecoregions, 77-78% of important sites for biodiversity, and 57% of 25,380 species have inadequate coverage. The existing 19.7 million km2 terrestrial PA network needs only 3.3 million km2 to be added to achieve 17% terrestrial coverage. However, it would require nearly doubling to achieve, cost-efficiently, coverage targets for all countries, ecoregions, important sites, and species. Poorer countries have the largest relative shortfalls. Such extensive and rapid expansion of formal PAs is unlikely to be achievable. Greater focus is therefore needed on alternative approaches, including community- and privately managed sites and other effective area-based conservation measures.
KW - Aichi Targets
KW - Alliance for Zero Extinction
KW - Convention on Biological Diversity
KW - IUCN Red List
KW - Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas
KW - Key Biodiversity Areas
KW - Protected areas
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U2 - 10.1111/conl.12158
DO - 10.1111/conl.12158
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84945443292
SN - 1755-263X
VL - 8
SP - 329
EP - 337
JO - Conservation Letters
JF - Conservation Letters
IS - 5
ER -