Natural Resource and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9, Canada.
Integrative Ecology Department, Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), Avd. Américo Vespucio s/n, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092, Sevilla, Spain.
Conserv Biol. 2018 Feb;32(1):127-134. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12970. Epub 2017 Nov 16.
To contribute to the aspirations of recent international biodiversity conventions, protected areas (PAs) must be strategically located and not simply established on economically marginal lands as they have in the past. With refined international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity to target protected areas in places of "importance to biodiversity," perhaps they may now be. We analyzed location biases in PAs globally over historic (pre-2004) and recent periods. Specifically, we examined whether the location of protected areas are more closely associated with high concentrations of threatened vertebrate species or with areas of low agricultural opportunity costs. We found that both old and new protected areas did not target places with high concentrations of threatened vertebrate species. Instead, they appeared to be established in locations that minimize conflict with agriculturally suitable lands. This entrenchment of past trends has substantial implications for the contributions these protected areas are making to international commitments to conserve biodiversity. If protected-area growth from 2004 to 2014 had strategically targeted unrepresented threatened vertebrates, >30 times more species (3086 or 2553 potential vs. 85 actual new species represented) would have been protected for the same area or the same cost as the actual expansion. With the land available for conservation declining, nations must urgently focus new protection on places that provide for the conservation outcomes outlined in international treaties.
为了响应最近的国际生物多样性公约的期望，保护区（PA）必须进行战略性选址，而不能像过去那样仅建立在经济上处于边缘地位的土地上。由于《生物多样性公约》下的国际承诺得到了完善，目标是在“对生物多样性重要的地方”建立保护区，或许现在可以做到这一点。我们分析了全球保护区在历史（2004 年之前）和近期的位置偏差。具体来说，我们研究了保护区的位置是否与受威胁脊椎动物物种的高浓度更密切相关，还是与农业机会成本低的地区更相关。我们发现，新旧保护区都没有针对受威胁脊椎动物物种浓度高的地区。相反，它们似乎是建立在与农业适宜土地冲突最小的地方。这种对过去趋势的固守，对这些保护区为履行保护生物多样性的国际承诺所做出的贡献产生了重大影响。如果从 2004 年到 2014 年的保护区增长能够战略性地针对未被代表的受威胁脊椎动物，那么与实际扩张相比，相同的面积或成本将保护超过 30 倍的物种（3086 或 2553 种潜在物种与 85 种实际新物种相对应）。随着可用于保护的土地不断减少，各国必须紧急将新的保护重点放在能够实现国际条约所概述的保护成果的地方。
