Title
Letters: Protected land: Many factors shape success
Author(s)
Gavin, Michael C.;McCarter, Joe;Berkes, Fikret;Sterling, Eleanor J.;Turner, Nancy J.
Published
2018
Publisher
Science
Abstract
The design of effective protected areas (PAs)
is widely debated. In their Report “One-third
of global protected land is under intense
human pressure” (18 May, p. 788), K. R.
Jones et al. show that the “human footprint”
inside the majority of the world’s protected
areas has increased and suggest that PA
performance can be improved by “upgrading”
PAs with increased restrictions on
human activities. They link their metric to
biodiversity conservation goals, but different
components of the human footprint will
vary widely in terms of impacts. For example,
maintenance of pasture lands may be
compatible with conservation in some PAs
(1). Increased access to PAs (by way of roads
and rivers, for example) also leads to diverse
outcomes: Wildlife poachers have a different
impact than visitors to sacred sites (2). Some
components of the human footprint (such
as roads) also affect indigenous lands, local
resource rights, and cultural diversity, as
areas of high biodiversity often correspond
with high cultural diversity (3, 4).
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PUB23995