Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Pan-Tropics and International Aid for Conservation

Evaluation of the effectiveness of protected areas is critical for forest conservation policies and priorities. We used 30 m resolution forest cover change data from 1990 to 2010 for ~4000 protected areas to evaluate their effectiveness. Our results show that protected areas in the tropics avoided 83,500 ± 21,200 km2 of deforestation during the 2000s. Brazil’s protected areas have the largest amount of avoided deforestation at 50,000 km2. We also show the amount of international aid received by tropical countries compared to the effectiveness of protected areas. Thirty-four tropical countries received USD 42 billion during the 1990s and USD 62 billion during the 2000s in international aid for biodiversity conservation. The effectiveness of international aid was highest in Latin America, with 4.3 m2/USD, led by Brazil, while tropical Asian countries showed the lowest average effect of international aid, reaching only 0.17 m2/USD.

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Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Pan-Tropics and International Aid for Conservation

10.20944/preprints202012.0532.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Do-Hyung Kim ◽

Anupam Anand

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Conservation ◽

Forest Cover ◽

International Aid ◽

Asian Countries ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Forest Change ◽

Conservation Policies ◽

Socio Economic Variables ◽

The Tropics

Evaluation of the effectiveness of protected areas is critical for forest conservation policies and priorities. To evaluate their effectiveness, we used 30-m resolution forest cover change data between 1990 and 2010 for ~4,000 protected areas and analyzed the relationships of the effectiveness of protected areas with socio-economic variables. Our results show that protected areas in the Tropics avoided 83,500 ± 21,200 km2 of deforestation during the 2000s. Brazil’s protected areas have the largest amount of avoided deforestation of 50,000 km2. We also show the amount of international aid received by tropical countries compared to the effectiveness of protected areas. International aid had major benefits in Latin America led by Brazil while tropical Asian countries used the resource ineffectively. Our results demonstrate that protected areas have been relatively more efficient in countries where deforestation pressures were increasing, and governance and forest change monitoring capacity are important factors for enhancing the efficacy of international aid.

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Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities: Evidence from the Peruvian Amazon

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2537829 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Juan Jose Miranda ◽

Leonardo Corral ◽

Allen Blackman ◽

Gregory Asner ◽

Eirivelthon Lima

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Local Communities ◽

Peruvian Amazon ◽

Forest Cover Change

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Securing tropical forest carbon: the contribution of protected areas to REDD

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605310000542 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 352-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Jörn P. W. Scharlemann ◽

Valerie Kapos ◽

Alison Campbell ◽

Igor Lysenko ◽

Neil D. Burgess ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Tropical Forests ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Protected Area ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Forest Degradation ◽

Protected Area Management ◽

Forest Loss ◽

The Tropics

AbstractForest loss and degradation in the tropics contribute 6–17% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Protected areas cover 217.2 million ha (19.6%) of the world’s humid tropical forests and contain c. 70.3 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) in biomass and soil to 1 m depth. Between 2000 and 2005, we estimate that 1.75 million ha of forest were lost from protected areas in humid tropical forests, causing the emission of 0.25–0.33 Pg C. Protected areas lost about half as much carbon as the same area of unprotected forest. We estimate that the reduction of these carbon emissions from ongoing deforestation in protected sites in humid tropical forests could be valued at USD 6,200–7,400 million depending on the land use after clearance. This is > 1.5 times the estimated spending on protected area management in these regions. Improving management of protected areas to retain forest cover better may be an important, although certainly not sufficient, component of an overall strategy for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

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Impacts of conservation policies and electoral cycles on protected areas and forest cover in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

10.11606/t.41.2019.tde-13122018-104400 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Patricia Guidão Cruz Ruggiero

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Atlantic Forest ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Brazilian Atlantic Forest ◽

Conservation Policies ◽

Electoral Cycles

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Understanding 34 Years of Forest Cover Dynamics across the Paraguayan Chaco: Characterizing Annual Changes and Forest Fragmentation Levels between 1987 and 2020

Forests ◽

10.3390/f13010025 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 25

Author(s):

Emmanuel Da Da Ponte ◽

Monserrat García-Calabrese ◽

Jennifer Kriese ◽

Nestor Cabral ◽

Lidia Perez de Perez de Molas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Natural Habitat ◽

Remote Sensing Data ◽

Rapid Expansion ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Landsat Images ◽

Forest Clearing ◽

Deforestation Rates ◽

Degree Of Fragmentation

Over the past 40 years, Paraguay has lost the majority of its natural forest cover, thus becoming one of the countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. The rapid expansion of the agricultural frontier, cattle ranching, and illegal logging between 1987 and 2012 resulted in the loss of 27% of original forest cover, equivalent to almost 44,000 km2. Within this context, the present research provides the first yearly analysis of forest cover change in the Paraguayan Chaco between the years 1987 and 2020. Remote sensing data obtained from Landsat images were applied to derive annual forest cover masks and deforestation rates over 34 years. Part of this study is a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of protected areas, as well as an analysis of the degree of fragmentation of the forest. All classification results obtained accuracies above 80% and revealed a total forest cover loss of approximately 64,700 km2. Forest clearing within protected areas was not frequent; however, some natural reserves presented losses of up to 25% of their forest cover. Through the consideration of several landscape metrics, this study reveals an onward fragmentation of forest cover, which endangers the natural habitat of numerous species.

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Assessing the tropical forest cover change in northern parts of Sonitpur and Udalguri District of Assam, India

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-90595-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ranjit Mahato ◽

Gibji Nimasow ◽

Oyi Dai Nimasow ◽

Dhoni Bushi

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

National Park ◽

Large Scale ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Ground Truth ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Wildlife Sanctuary ◽

Remotely Sensed Data ◽

Ground Truth Data ◽

Increasing Trends

AbstractSonitpur and Udalguri district of Assam possess rich tropical forests with equally important faunal species. The Nameri National Park, Sonai-Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary, and other Reserved Forests are areas of attraction for tourists and wildlife lovers. However, these protected areas are reportedly facing the problem of encroachment and large-scale deforestation. Therefore, this study attempts to estimate the forest cover change in the area through integrating the remotely sensed data of 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 with the Geographic Information System. The Maximum Likelihood algorithm-based supervised classification shows acceptable agreement between the classified image and the ground truth data with an overall accuracy of about 96% and a Kappa coefficient of 0.95. The results reveal a forest cover loss of 7.47% from 1990 to 2000 and 7.11% from 2000 to 2010. However, there was a slight gain of 2.34% in forest cover from 2010 to 2020. The net change of forest to non-forest was 195.17 km2 in the last forty years. The forest transition map shows a declining trend of forest remained forest till 2010 and a slight increase after that. There was a considerable decline in the forest to non-forest (11.94% to 3.50%) from 2000–2010 to 2010–2020. Further, a perceptible gain was also observed in the non-forest to the forest during the last four decades. The overlay analysis of forest cover maps show an area of 460.76 km2 (28.89%) as forest (unchanged), 764.21 km2 (47.91%) as non-forest (unchanged), 282.67 km2 (17.72%) as deforestation and 87.50 km2 (5.48%) as afforestation. The study found hotspots of deforestation in the closest areas of National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, and Reserved Forests due to encroachments for human habitation, agriculture, and timber/fuelwood extractions. Therefore, the study suggests an early declaration of these protected areas as Eco-Sensitive Zone to control the increasing trends of deforestation.

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Management effectiveness positively influences forest conservation outcomes in protected areas in Mexico

10.32942/osf.io/d4mec ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kathryn Powlen ◽

Michael C. Gavin ◽

Kelly W. Jones

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Management Effectiveness ◽

Multiple Stakeholders ◽

Management Quality ◽

Quasi Experimental ◽

Equal Sharing ◽

Careful Design

Understanding the factors that drive protected area outcomes is critical to increase the success of global conservation efforts. Until recently, our understanding of the influence of management effectiveness has been restricted by the limited availability of standardized management data and study design limitations of prior evaluations. Here we use a quasi-experimental matching approach to test the influence of management effectiveness on forest cover change inside 46 protected areas in Mexico. We test the influence of five management categories, including context and planning, administration and finance, use and benefits, governance and social participation, and management quality, as well as an overall effectiveness score, using a subgroup analysis and an interaction term in post-matching multiple linear regression. Our results show that protected areas with higher management effectiveness have a greater effect on reducing deforestation compared to those with low management effectiveness, but that both types of protected areas experience less forest loss compared to similar unprotected areas. We find this trend in all five of the management categories and the overall score, with administration and finance scores having the greatest effect on forest loss outcomes. Our findings suggest careful design and planning, effective participation from multiple stakeholders and equal sharing of benefits, and sufficient human and financial capital can improve the effectiveness of protected areas in preventing forest loss.

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Forest Cover Change and the Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Himalaya since 1998

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12156123 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (15) ◽

pp. 6123

Author(s):

Changjun Gu ◽

Pei Zhao ◽

Qiong Chen ◽

Shicheng Li ◽

Lanhui Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Forest Degradation ◽

Google Earth ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Natural Conditions ◽

Positive Role ◽

Forest Cover Changes ◽

Matched Samples ◽

The Himalaya

Himalaya, a global biodiversity hotspot, has undergone considerable forest cover fluctuation in recent decades, and numerous protected areas (PAs) have been established to prohibit forest degradation there. However, the spatiotemporal characteristics of this forest cover change across the whole region are still unknown, as are the effectiveness of its PAs. Therefore, here, we first mapped the forest cover of Himalaya in 1998, 2008, and 2018 with high accuracy (>90%) using a random forest (RF) algorithm based on Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was applied with eight control variables to balance the heterogeneity of land characteristics inside and outside PAs. The effectiveness of PAs in Himalaya was quantified based on matched samples. The results showed that the forest cover in Himalaya increased by 4983.65 km2 from 1998 to 2008, but decreased by 4732.71 km2 from 2008 to 2018. Further analysis revealed that deforestation and reforestation mainly occurred at the edge of forest tracts, with over 55% of forest fluctuation occurring below a 2000 m elevation. Forest cover changes in PAs of Himalaya were analyzed; these results indicated that about 56% of PAs had a decreasing trend from 1998 to 2018, including the Torsa (Ia PA), an area representative of the most natural conditions, which is strictly protected. Even so, as a whole, PAs in Himalaya played a positive role in halting deforestation.

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