School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, 4072, Australia.
Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Mar 10;811:152316. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152316. Epub 2021 Dec 13.
Natural ecosystems globally have been disrupted by anthropogenic activities, and the current biodiversity extinction rate exceeds the natural extinction rate by 1,000-fold. Protected areas (PAs) help insulate samples of biodiversity from these human-induced threats; however, assessments of the factors threatening biodiversity in PAs are scarce in South Asia - one of the key global epicentres of human population growth. Here, by synthesizing published literature and analysing the current configuration of the PA estate, we discuss the trends and biases in existing knowledge, identify research gaps, measure the level of PA coverage and growth patterns, and discuss the threats to South Asian biodiversity inside PAs. We showed that published studies focused mainly on documenting species distributions in PAs, were heavily biased toward vertebrates, and had been mostly conducted in India. Nearly 70% of studies focused on the distribution of organisms, while only 9% performed conservation assessments or devised strategies to manage PAs; 70% of studies cover vertebrates, while only two studies focused on marine fauna; 50% of studies focused on India, with only a handful from Afghanistan. Only three (Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka) of the eight countries already meet a terrestrial PA representation target of 17%, while no country meets a marine representation target of 10%. Most PAs were very small, with nearly 80% below 100 km, and 22% below 1 km. We identified that South Asian PAs are facing a broad range of anthropogenic threats - about three in five studies reported threats inside protected areas. Due to extensive anthropogenic pressures, biodiversity in South Asia is facing an existential crisis, and society-wide collaborative efforts are needed to arrest and reverse the declines. We hope this review will stimulate efforts to capitalise on the opportunity for efficient PA growth in the region on the eve of the post-2020 global biodiversity targets.
全球自然生态系统受到人为活动的干扰，目前生物多样性的灭绝速度是自然灭绝速度的 1000 倍。自然保护区（PA）有助于保护生物多样性样本免受这些人为威胁；然而，在南亚——全球人口增长的关键中心之一——评估保护区内生物多样性所面临的威胁的研究却很少。在这里，我们通过综合已发表的文献和分析当前保护区的配置，讨论了现有知识的趋势和偏见，确定了研究空白，衡量了保护区的覆盖水平和增长模式，并讨论了保护区内南亚生物多样性所面临的威胁。我们发现，已发表的研究主要集中在记录保护区内物种的分布，严重偏向脊椎动物，并且主要在印度进行。近 70%的研究集中在生物分布上，而只有 9%的研究进行了保护评估或制定了管理保护区的策略；70%的研究涵盖了脊椎动物，而只有两项研究关注了海洋动物；50%的研究集中在印度，只有少数来自阿富汗。在已经确定的 8 个国家中，只有 3 个（不丹、尼泊尔、斯里兰卡）达到了 17%的陆地保护区代表性目标，而没有一个国家达到了 10%的海洋代表性目标。大多数保护区都很小，近 80%的保护区面积低于 100 公里，22%的保护区面积低于 1 公里。我们发现，南亚保护区正面临着广泛的人为威胁——大约五分之三的研究报告称保护区内存在威胁。由于广泛的人为压力，南亚的生物多样性正面临着生存危机，需要全社会的合作努力来阻止和扭转这种下降趋势。我们希望这篇综述能够激发人们在 2020 年后全球生物多样性目标前夕，为该地区有效保护区的增长创造机会。
