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| One-sixth of the global terrestrial surface nowfallswithin protected
areas (PAs), making it essential to understand how far they mitigate
the increasing pressures on nature which characterize the
Anthropocene. In by far the largest analysis of this question to
date and not restricted to forested PAs, we compiled data from 12,315
PAs across 152 countries to investigate their ability to reduce human
pressure and how this varies with socioeconomic and management
circumstances. While many PAs show positive outcomes, strikingly we
find that compared with matched unprotected areas, PAs have on
average not reduced a compound index of pressure change over the
past 15 y. Moreover, in tropical regions average pressure change from
cropland conversion has increased inside PAs even more than in
matched unprotected areas. However, our results also confirm previous
studies restricted to forest PAs, where pressures are increasing,
but less than in counterfactual areas. Our results also show that
countries with high national-level development scores have experienced
lower rates of pressure increase over the past 15 y within their
PAs compared with a matched outside area. Our results caution
against the rapid establishment of new PAs without simultaneously
addressing the conditions needed to enable their success. | |
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