Open AccessThe impact of strictly protected areas in a deforestation hotspot
Author(s) -
Hernandez Stephanie,
Barnes Megan D.,
Duce Stephanie,
Adams Vanessa M.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
conservation science and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2578-4854
DOI - 10.1111/csp2.479
Subject(s) - clearance , deforestation (computer science) , biodiversity hotspot , geography , protected area , biodiversity , iucn red list , hotspot (geology) , statistical analysis , environmental protection , environmental resource management , agroforestry , environmental science , ecology , statistics , computer science , biology , mathematics , archaeology , medicine , urology , programming language , geophysics , geology
Protected areas are often thought of as a key conservation strategy for avoiding deforestation and retaining biodiversity; therefore, it is crucial to know how effective they are at achieving this purpose. Using a case study from Queensland, Australia, we identified and controlled for bias in allocating strictly protected areas (IUCN Class I and II) and evaluated their impact (in terms of avoiding deforestation) using statistical matching methods. Over the 30 years between 1988 and 2018, approximately 70,481 km 2 of native forest was cleared in the study region. Using statistical matching, we estimated that 10.5% (1,447 km 2 ) of Category I and II (strict) protected areas would have been cleared in the absence of protection. Put differently, 89.5% of strictly protected areas are unlikely to have been cleared, even if they were never protected. While previous studies have used statistical matching at a country or state level, we conducted an analysis that allows regional comparison across a single State. Our research indicates that strictly protected areas are marginally effective at preventing deforestation, and this likely due to biases in establishing protected areas on unproductive land.