Global protected areas seem insufficient to safeguard half of the world's mammals from human-induced extinction.

ABSTRACT: Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of global conservation and central to international plans to minimize global extinctions. During the coming century, global ecosystem destruction and fragmentation associated with increased human population and economic activity could make the long-term survival of most terrestrial vertebrates even more dependent on PAs. However, the capacity of the current global PA network to sustain species for the long term is unknown. Here, we explore this question for all nonvolant terrestrial mammals for which we found sufficient data, ∼4,000 species. We first estimate the potential population size of each such mammal species in each PA and then use three different criteria to estimate if solely the current global network of PAs might be sufficient for their l

SUBMITTER: Williams DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9214487 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature