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Albers HJ, Chang CH, Dissanayake STM, Helmstedt KJ, Kroetz K, Dilkina B, Zapata-Mor An I, Nolte C, Ochoa-Ochoa LM, Spencer G. Anticipating anthropogenic threats in acquiring new protected areas. Conserv Biol 2024; 38:e14176. [PMID: 37668112 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2023] [Revised: 08/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
Biodiversity continues to decline despite protected area expansion and global conservation commitments. Biodiversity losses occur in existing protected areas, yet common methods used to select protected areas ignore postimplementation threats that reduce effectiveness. We developed a conservation planning framework that considers the ongoing anthropogenic threats within protected areas when selecting sites and the value of planning for costly threat-mitigating activities (i.e., enforcement) at the time of siting decisions. We applied the framework to a set of landscapes that contained the range of possible correlations between species richness and threat. Accounting for threats and implementing enforcement activities increased benefits from protected areas without increasing budgets. Threat information was valuable in conserving more species per spending level even without enforcement, especially on landscapes with randomly distributed threats. Benefits from including threat information and enforcement were greatest when human threats peaked in areas of high species richness and were lowest where human threats were negatively associated with species richness. Because acquiring information on threats and using threat-mitigating activities are costly, our findings can guide decision-makers regarding the settings in which to pursue these planning steps.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidi J Albers
- Department of Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA
| | - Charlotte H Chang
- Department of Biology and Environmental Analysis Program, Pomona College, Claremont, California, USA
- David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship Program, Society for Conservation Biology, Washington, DC, USA
- National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
| | | | - Kate J Helmstedt
- School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Kailin Kroetz
- School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
- Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Bistra Dilkina
- Department of Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | | | - Christoph Nolte
- Department of Earth & Environment, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Leticia M Ochoa-Ochoa
- Departamento de Biolog´ıa Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
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