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Journalism of Courage
Biodiversity is declining more quickly inside key protected areas than outside them, according to a new study. The findings, which raise questions about the ongoing conservation practices, suggest that merely designating more areas as protected “will not automatically result in better outcomes for biodiversity”.
The analysis was carried out by the Natural History Museum (NHM), based in London, and published on Monday.
Dr Gareth Thomas, head of research innovation at NHM, told The Guardian, that the study’s findings should be “a wake-up call” to policymakers and enforcers of the legislation that it was not enough just to designate an area as protected. “The ministers and policymakers need to know it is not about just hitting a number,” he said.
The researchers involved in the study examined the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII), which estimates how much of a region’s natural biodiversity is still left on average, according to the NHM website.
They found that the index has decreased by 1.88 percentage points globally between 2000 and 2020.
The researchers also examined critical biodiversity areas (CBAs) — ecosystems and areas such as wetlands that are crucial for biodiversity — 22% of which is protected. They found that “within those critical areas that were not protected, biodiversity had declined by an average of 1.9 percentage points between 2000 and 2020, and within the areas that were protected it had declined by 2.1 percentage points,” according to a report by The Guardian.
One of the primary reasons for the decline is that many of the protected areas are not designed to safeguard the whole ecosystem but only certain species. This means that complete “biodiversity intactness” is not a priority, according to the study.
The researchers also said that these areas could have already been witnessing degradation, which is why they were declared protected in the first place. They pointed out that region-specific analysis is required to determine why these landscapes are deteriorating.
Another threat to the protected areas is oil, gas, and mining concessions — land granted by the government to companies which explore for and produce oil, natural gas, and other hydrocarbons. For instance, more than 65% of the Conkouati-Douli national park, which is one of the most biodiverse protected areas in the Republic of the Congo, is occupied by oil and gas concessions, The Guardian report said.
The climate crisis also has a role to play. The researchers said that more frequent and intense droughts and wildfires have severely impacted the protected areas. For example, several of Australia’s national parks, which have been stringently protected by authorities, were destroyed by wildfires in 2019.
“Protections in place are not stringent enough… Countries need to continue their focus on 30×30 (a commitment made by countries at Biodiversity COP15 to put at least 30% of the world’s lands and oceans under conservation by 2030), that shouldn’t waver. They just need to bring more into it, and pay more attention to actually conserving the land which provides those ecosystem services,” Thomas told The Guardian.
