The socioeconomic and environmental niche of protected areas reveals global conservation gaps and opportunities.

ABSTRACT: The global network of protected areas has rapidly expanded in the past decade and is expected to cover at least 30% of land and sea by 2030 to halt biodiversity erosion. Yet, the distribution of protected areas is highly heterogeneous on Earth and the social-environmental preconditions enabling or hindering protected area establishment remain poorly understood. Here, using fourteen socioeconomic and environmental factors, we characterize the multidimensional niche of terrestrial and marine protected areas, which we use to accurately establish, at the global scale, whether a particular location has preconditions favourable for paestablishment. We reveal that protected areas, particularly the most restrictive ones, over-aggregate where human development and the number of non-governmental org

SUBMITTER: Mouillot D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11489723 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature