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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Environmental Research Letters

Terrestrial protected areas are not effective in mitigating human pressure on biodiversity

  • Katharina Ramm1
  • Calum Brown1
  • Almut Arneth1
  • Mark Rounsevell2
  1. 1Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  2. 2Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie
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Abstract

Global biodiversity is declining rapidly and protected areas are a major conservation measure aiming to reverse this negative trend by limiting pressures on biodiversity in particular locations. There are increasing calls to protect larger areas, but also growing evidence that an increase in area alone is insufficient. At least as important is the effectiveness of existing and new protected areas. We apply a novel biodiversity pressure index that encompasses the five direct drivers of biodiversity loss identified by IPBES to analyse pressures in protected areas globally. We use a GLMM to assess which variables shape the pressure levels within protected areas. We find that there are still notable human pressures in protected areas globally. Strict protection and larger size of protected areas result in lower pressures, while high national-level corruption levels result in higher pressures. The results confirm that an increase in the number of protected areas will not necessarily conserve biodiversity effectively, unless they achieve greater control of the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss, including spatially diffuse pressures and those that currently compromise small protected areas in countries with unstable governance.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{ramm2026terrestrial,
  title = {{Terrestrial protected areas are not effective in mitigating human pressure on biodiversity}},
  author = {Katharina Ramm and Calum Brown and Almut Arneth and Mark Rounsevell},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/aebc9f},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aebc9f},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Terrestrial protected areas are not effective in mitigating human pressure on biodiversity
AU  - Katharina Ramm
AU  - Calum Brown
AU  - Almut Arneth
AU  - Mark Rounsevell
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/02
JO  - Environmental Research Letters
DO  - 10.1088/1748-9326/aebc9f
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aebc9f
AB  - Global biodiversity is declining rapidly and protected areas are a major conservation measure aiming to reverse this negative trend by limiting pressures on biodiversity in particular locations. There are increasing calls to protect larger areas, but also growing evidence that an increase in area alone is insufficient. At least as important is the effectiveness of existing and new protected areas. We apply a novel biodiversity pressure index that encompasses the five direct drivers of biodiversity loss identified by IPBES to analyse pressures in protected areas globally. We use a GLMM to assess which variables shape the pressure levels within protected areas. We find that there are still notable human pressures in protected areas globally. Strict protection and larger size of protected areas result in lower pressures, while high national-level corruption levels result in higher pressures. The results confirm that an increase in the number of protected areas will not necessarily conserve biodiversity effectively, unless they achieve greater control of the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss, including spatially diffuse pressures and those that currently compromise small protected areas in countries with unstable governance.
SN  - 1748-9326
ER  -