Assessing representation of remote sensing derived forest structure and land cover across a network of protected areas.

ABSTRACT: Protected areas (PA) are an effective means of conserving biodiversity and protecting suites of valuable ecosystem services. Currently, many nations and international governments use proportional area protected as a critical metric for assessing progress towards biodiversity conservation. However, the areal and other common metrics do not assess the effectiveness of PA networks, nor do they assess how representative PA are of the ecosystems they aim to protect. Topography, stand structure, and land cover are all key drivers of biodiversity within forest environments, and are well-suited as indicators to assess the representation of PA. Here, we examine the PA network in British Columbia, Canada, through drivers derived from freely-available data and remote sensing products across the provi

SUBMITTER: Muise ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286433 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature