Southeast Asian protected areas are effective in conserving forest cover and forest carbon stocks compared to unprotected areas.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Graham V
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8660836 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Protected areas in Guatemala provide habitat for diverse tropical ecosystems, contain ancient archeological sites, sequester carbon, and support economic activity through eco-tourism. However, many of the forests in these protected areas have been converted to other uses or degraded by human activity, and therefore are considered "paper parks". In this study, we analyzed time series of satellite data to monitor deforestation, degradation, and natural disturbance throughout Guatemala from 2000 to 2017. A recently developed methodology, Continuous Degradation Detection (CODED), was used to detect forest disturbances of varying size and magnitude. Through sample-based statistical inference, we estimated that 854 137 ha (± 83 133 ha) were deforested and 1 012 947 ha (±139 512 ha) of forest was disturbed but not converted during our study period. Forest disturbance in protected areas ranged from under 1% of a park's area to over 95%. Our estimate of the extent of deforestation is similar to previous studies, however, degradation and natural disturbance affect a larger area. These results suggest that the total amount of forest disturbance can be significantly underestimated if degradation and natural disturbance are not taken into account. As a consequence, we found that the protected areas of Guatemala are more affected by disturbance than previously realized.
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Project description:In spite of the high importance of forests, global forest loss has remained alarmingly high during the last decades. Forest loss at a global scale has been unveiled with increasingly finer spatial resolution, but the forest extent and loss in protected areas (PAs) and in large intact forest landscapes (IFLs) have not so far been systematically assessed. Moreover, the impact of protection on preserving the IFLs is not well understood. In this study we conducted a consistent assessment of the global forest loss in PAs and IFLs over the period 2000-2012. We used recently published global remote sensing based spatial forest cover change data, being a uniform and consistent dataset over space and time, together with global datasets on PAs' and IFLs' locations. Our analyses revealed that on a global scale 3% of the protected forest, 2.5% of the intact forest, and 1.5% of the protected intact forest were lost during the study period. These forest loss rates are relatively high compared to global total forest loss of 5% for the same time period. The variation in forest losses and in protection effect was large among geographical regions and countries. In some regions the loss in protected forests exceeded 5% (e.g. in Australia and Oceania, and North America) and the relative forest loss was higher inside protected areas than outside those areas (e.g. in Mongolia and parts of Africa, Central Asia, and Europe). At the same time, protection was found to prevent forest loss in several countries (e.g. in South America and Southeast Asia). Globally, high area-weighted forest loss rates of protected and intact forests were associated with high gross domestic product and in the case of protected forests also with high proportions of agricultural land. Our findings reinforce the need for improved understanding of the reasons for the high forest losses in PAs and IFLs and strategies to prevent further losses.
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Project description:Protected areas are a critical tool to conserve biodiversity in the face of the global crisis of species extinction. Here, we present the first ever management effectiveness assessment of Pakistan's Protected Areas (PAs). We link these assessments to the delivery of conservation outcomes focusing on the threatened Western Tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus) endemic to Pakistan and India. We used two approaches, first mapping the spatial distribution of potential habitat coverage using machine learning ensemble models and second, an assessment of the management effectiveness of protected areas. Our results show that only Machiara National Park scored just above 40% (indicating relatively weak management), 22 of the PAs fell within the 25-50% quantile (indicating weak management), and 3 scored below 25% (indicating poor management). PAs within the species distributional range covered 92,387 ha which is only 2% of the total potential habitat of the Tragopan. Scoring of Planning element was insufficient both in term of the site and species. Likewise, inputs (e.g., research and monitoring program, staff numbers, staff training, current budget, security of budget, and management after process) were also inadequate. Finally, we recommend the establishment of more protected areas within the species potential habitat and inclusion of species-specific plans in Pakistan's PAs management.
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