Global trends in protected area connectivity from 2010 to 2018.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Saura S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6919936 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Connectivity of protected areas (PAs) is crucial for meeting their conservation goals. We provide the first global evaluation of countries' progress towards Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity that is to have at least 17% of the land covered by well-connected PA systems by 2020. We quantify how well the terrestrial PA systems of countries are designed to promote connectivity, using the Protected Connected (ProtConn) indicator. We refine ProtConn to focus on the part of PA connectivity that is in the power of a country to influence, i.e. not penalizing countries for PA isolation due to the sea and to foreign lands. We found that globally only 7.5% of the area of the countries is covered by protected connected lands, which is about half of the global PA coverage of 14.7%, and that only 30% of the countries currently meet the Aichi Target 11 connectivity element. These findings suggest the need for considerable efforts to improve PA connectivity globally. We further identify the main priorities for improving or sustaining PA connectivity in each country: general increase of PA coverage, targeted designation of PAs in strategic locations for connectivity, ensuring permeability of the unprotected landscapes between PAs, coordinated management of neighbouring PAs within the country, and/or transnational coordination with PAs in other countries. Our assessment provides a key contribution to evaluate progress towards global PA connectivity targets and to highlight important strengths and weaknesses of the design of PA systems for connectivity in the world's countries and regions.
| S-EPMC5825384 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Governments have agreed to expand the global protected area network from 13% to 17% of the world's land surface by 2020 (Aichi target 11) and to prevent the further loss of known threatened species (Aichi target 12). These targets are interdependent, as protected areas can stem biodiversity loss when strategically located and effectively managed. However, the global protected area estate is currently biased toward locations that are cheap to protect and away from important areas for biodiversity. Here we use data on the distribution of protected areas and threatened terrestrial birds, mammals, and amphibians to assess current and possible future coverage of these species under the convention. We discover that 17% of the 4,118 threatened vertebrates are not found in a single protected area and that fully 85% are not adequately covered (i.e., to a level consistent with their likely persistence). Using systematic conservation planning, we show that expanding protected areas to reach 17% coverage by protecting the cheapest land, even if ecoregionally representative, would increase the number of threatened vertebrates covered by only 6%. However, the nonlinear relationship between the cost of acquiring land and species coverage means that fivefold more threatened vertebrates could be adequately covered for only 1.5 times the cost of the cheapest solution, if cost efficiency and threatened vertebrates are both incorporated into protected area decision making. These results are robust to known errors in the vertebrate range maps. The Convention on Biological Diversity targets may stimulate major expansion of the global protected area estate. If this expansion is to secure a future for imperiled species, new protected areas must be sited more strategically than is presently the case.
| S-EPMC4068989 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Biologging data allow animal ecologists to directly measure species' fine-scale spatiotemporal responses to environments, such as movement - critical for our understanding of biodiversity declines in the Anthropocene. Animal movement between resource patches is a behavioral expression of multiple ecological processes that affect individual fitness. Protected area (PA) networks are a tool used to conserve biodiversity by sustaining habitat patches across vast heterogeneous landscapes. However, our ability to design PA networks that conserve biodiversity relies on our accurate understanding of animal movement and functional connectivity; this understanding is rarely tested in real-world situations due to the large geographic expanse of most PA networks. Using a tractable PA network mesocosm, we employ cutting-edge biologging technology to analyze animal movement decisions in response to a highly heterogeneous landscape. We analyze these data to test, in a novel way, three common hypotheses about functional connectivity - structural corridors, least cost paths, and stepping stones. Consistently, animals moved along structurally self-similar corridors. In reference to the Aichi 2020 Biodiversity Targets, relying on species to "stepping stone" across habitat remnants may not achieve protected area network conservation objectives.
| S-EPMC6659697 | biostudies-literature
Project description:International efforts are underway to establish well-connected systems of marine protected areas (MPAs) covering at least 10% of the ocean by 2020. But the nature and dynamics of ocean ecosystem connectivity are poorly understood, with unresolved effects of climate variability. We used 40-year runs of a particle tracking model to examine the sensitivity of an MPA network for habitat-forming cold-water corals in the northeast Atlantic to changes in larval dispersal driven by atmospheric cycles and larval behaviour. Trajectories of Lophelia pertusa larvae were strongly correlated to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the dominant pattern of interannual atmospheric circulation variability over the northeast Atlantic. Variability in trajectories significantly altered network connectivity and source-sink dynamics, with positive phase NAO conditions producing a well-connected but asymmetrical network connected from west to east. Negative phase NAO produced reduced connectivity, but notably some larvae tracked westward-flowing currents towards coral populations on the mid-Atlantic ridge. Graph theoretical metrics demonstrate critical roles played by seamounts and offshore banks in larval supply and maintaining connectivity across the network. Larval longevity and behaviour mediated dispersal and connectivity, with shorter lived and passive larvae associated with reduced connectivity. We conclude that the existing MPA network is vulnerable to atmospheric-driven changes in ocean circulation.
| S-EPMC5180131 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable progress towards the global target of having 17% of the world's land area within protected areas by 2020, biodiversity continues to decline. The discrepancy between increasing PA coverage and negative biodiversity trends has resulted in renewed efforts to enhance PA effectiveness. The global conservation community has conducted thousands of assessments of protected area management effectiveness (PAME), and interest in the use of these data to help measure the conservation impact of PA management interventions is high. Here, we summarize the status of PAME assessment, review the published evidence for a link between PAME assessment results and the conservation impacts of PAs, and discuss the limitations and future use of PAME data in measuring the impact of PA management interventions on conservation outcomes. We conclude that PAME data, while designed as a tool for local adaptive management, may also help to provide insights into the impact of PA management interventions from the local-to-global scale. However, the subjective and ordinal characteristics of the data present significant limitations for their application in rigorous scientific impact evaluations, a problem that should be recognized and mitigated where possible.
| S-EPMC4614737 | biostudies-other
Project description:Using national registries, we investigated the epidemiological trends of hepatobiliary carcinomas in Austria between 2010 and 2018 and compared them to those reported for the periods of 1990-1999 and 2000-2009. In total, 12,577 patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 7146), intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (n = 1858), extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (n = 1649), gallbladder carcinoma (n = 1365), and ampullary carcinoma (n = 559), between 2010 and 2018, were included. The median overall survival of all patients was 9.0 months. The best median overall survival was observed in patients with ampullary carcinoma (28.5 months) and the worst median overall survival was observed in patients with intrahepatic carcinoma (5.6 months). The overall survival significantly improved in all entities over the period 2010-2018 as compared with over the periods of 2000-2009 and 1990-1999. Age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates remained stable for most entities in both, men and women; only in gallbladder carcinoma, the incidence and mortality rates significantly decreased in women, whereas, in men, the incidence rates remained stable and mortality rates showed a decreasing trend. We showed that age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates were stable in most entities, except in gallbladder carcinoma. The overall survival improved in almost all entities as compared with those during 1990-2009.
| S-EPMC9264900 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Tidal flats are a globally distributed coastal ecosystem important for supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Local to continental-scale studies have documented rapid loss of tidal habitat driven by human impacts, but assessments of progress in their conservation are lacking. With an internally consistent estimate of distribution and change, based on Landsat satellite imagery, now available for the world's tidal flats, we examined tidal flat representation in protected areas (PAs) and human pressure on tidal flats. We determined tidal flat representation and its net change in PAs by spatially overlaying tidal flat maps with the World Database of Protected Areas. Similarly, we overlaid the most recent distribution map of tidal flats (2014-2016) with the human modification map (HMc ) (range from 0, no human pressure, to 1, very high human pressure) to estimate the human pressure exerted on this ecosystem. Sixty-eight percent of the current extent of tidal flats is subject to moderate to very high human pressure (HMc > 0.1), but 31% of tidal flat extent occurred in PAs, far exceeding PA coverage of the marine (6%) and terrestrial (13%) realms. Net change of tidal flat extent inside PAs was similar to tidal flat net change outside PAs from 1999 to 2016. Substantial shortfalls in protection of tidal flats occurred across Asia, where large intertidal extents coincided with high to very high human pressure (HMc > 0.4-1.0) and net tidal flat losses up to 86.4 km² (95% CI 83.9-89.0) occurred inside individual PAs in the study period. Taken together, our results show substantial progress in PA designation for tidal flats globally, but that PA status alone does not prevent all habitat loss. Safeguarding the world's tidal flats will thus require deeper understanding of the factors that govern their dynamics and effective policy that promotes holistic coastal and catchment management strategies.
| S-EPMC8317051 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It has been recognized that well-connected networks of protected areas are needed to halt the continued loss of global biodiversity. The recently signed Kunming-Montreal biodiversity agreement commits countries to protecting 30% of terrestrial lands in well-connected networks of protected areas by 2030. To meet these ambitious targets, land-use planners and conservation practitioners will require tools to identify areas important for connectivity and track future changes. In this study we present methods using circuit theoretic models with a subset of sentinel park nodes to evaluate connectivity for a protected areas network. We assigned a lower cost to natural areas within protected areas, under the assumption that animal movement within parks should be less costly given the regulation of activities. We found that by using mean pairwise effective resistance (MPER) as an indicator of overall network connectivity, we were able to detect changes in a parks network in response to simulated land-use changes. As expected, MPER increased with the addition of high-cost developments and decreased with the addition of new, low-cost protected areas. We tested our sentinel node method by evaluating connectivity for the protected area network in the province of Ontario, Canada. We also calculated a node isolation index, which highlighted differences in protected area connectivity between the north and the south of the province. Our method can help provide protected areas ecologists and planners with baseline estimates of connectivity for a given protected area network and an indicator that can be used to track changes in connectivity in the future.
| S-EPMC10612492 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The protection of forests is crucial to providing important ecosystem services, such as supplying clean air and water, safeguarding critical habitats for biodiversity, and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this importance, global forest loss has steadily increased in recent decades. Protected Areas (PAs) currently account for almost 15% of Earth's terrestrial surface and protect 5% of global tree cover and were developed as a principal approach to limit the impact of anthropogenic activities on natural, intact ecosystems and habitats. We assess global trends in forest loss inside and outside of PAs, and land cover following this forest loss, using a global map of tree cover loss and global maps of land cover. While forests in PAs experience loss at lower rates than non-protected forests, we find that the temporal trend of forest loss in PAs is markedly similar to that of all forest loss globally. We find that forest loss in PAs is most commonly-and increasingly-followed by shrubland, a broad category that could represent re-growing forest, agricultural fallows, or pasture lands in some regional contexts. Anthropogenic forest loss for agriculture is common in some regions, particularly in the global tropics, while wildfires, pests, and storm blowdown are a significant and consistent cause of forest loss in more northern latitudes, such as the United States, Canada, and Russia. Our study describes a process for screening tree cover loss and agriculture expansion taking place within PAs, and identification of priority targets for further site-specific assessments of threats to PAs. We illustrate an approach for more detailed assessment of forest loss in four case study PAs in Brazil, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the United States.
| S-EPMC7592705 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe World Health Assembly set a global target of increasing exclusive breastfeeding for infants under 6 months to at least 50% by year 2025. However, little is known about the current status of breastfeeding practice, as well as the trends in breastfeeding practices during recent years. We examined global prevalence of the World Health Organization (WHO) feeding practices in 57 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and time trends since 2000 for 44 selected countries.MethodsWe included 57 eligible LMICs that had completed data on breastfeeding and complementary feeding in 2010-2018 from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for examining current feeding status. We further selected 44 LMICs that had two standard DHS surveys between 2000 and 2009 and 2010-2018 to examine time trends of feeding status. We calculated global, regional, and national weighted prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for five breastfeeding indicators and two complementary feeding indicators.FindingsIn 57 LMICs during 2010-2018, global weighted prevalence was 51.9% for early initiation of breastfeeding, 45.7% for exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months, 32.0% for exclusive breastfeeding at 4-5 months, 83.1% for continued breastfeeding at 1 year, 56.2% for continued breastfeeding at 2 years, 14.9% for introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft foods under 6 months, and 63.1% for introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft foods at 6-8 months. Eastern Mediterranean (34.5%) and European regions (43.7%) (vs. South-East Asia/Western Pacific (55.2%)), and upper middle-income countries (38.4%) (vs. lower middle-income countries (47.4%)) had poorer performance of exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months. South-East Asia/Western Pacific regions (51.0%) (vs. other regions (68.3%-84.1%)) and low-income (66.4%) or lower middle-income countries (58.2%) (vs. upper middle-income countries (81.7%)) had lower prevalence of introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft foods at 6-8 months. In 44 selected LMICs from 2000 to 2009 to 2010-2018, total weighted prevalence presented an increase of 10.1% for exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months, but a 1.7% decrease for continued breastfeeding at 1 year. Over this period, the Eastern Mediterranean region had a 5.3% decrease of exclusive breastfeeding under 6 months, and the European region had a 2.0% increase for introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft foods under 6 months. The prevalence of introduction of solid, semi-solid or soft foods at 6-8 months decreased in South-East Asia/Western Pacific region by 15.2%, and in lower middle-income countries by 24.4%.InterpretationBreastfeeding practices in LMICs have continued to improve in the past decade globally, but practices still lag behind the WHO feeding recommendations. Breastfeeding practices differed greatly across WHO regions, with the Eastern Mediterranean and European regions, and upper middle-income countries facing the greatest challenges in meeting targets. Continued efforts are needed to achieve the 2025 global breastfeeding target.
| S-EPMC8343261 | biostudies-literature