New publication on evaluating protected area systems

23 May 2024

Photo: Etosha National Park, Namibia (K. Jantke)

In a recently published study, Dr. Kerstin Jantke and Berit Mohr assess the progress made in ecological representation during the last decade of protected area expansion. They look at nine countries across all continents, including the case study regions of the C2 project on sustainable land use in the CLICCS Cluster of Excellence.

Results show that there is little evidence that the countries studied have strategically protected underrepresented ecoregions in the 2011–2020 decade. Although 170.000 km² of terrestrial and 3 million km² of marine reserves have been designated during this period in the nine countries investigated, about half of their terrestrial and marine ecoregions remain poorly protected in 2020.

Their findings reinforce the need for targeted action to adequately protect ecoregions if the Sustainable Development Goals 14 (Life below water) and 15 (Life on land) and the new UN Global Biodiversity Framework are to be successful. The methodology presented allows for ongoing evaluation, identification of gaps, and monitoring of countries’ progress towards adequate ecological representation in protected area networks and is applicable to any biodiversity surrogate beyond ecoregions and any country or region of interest. Code and data are made available with the study for further use.

The study Little progress in ecoregion representation in the last decade of terrestrial and marine protected area expansion leaves substantial tasks ahead has been published in the Journal Global Ecology and Conservation.