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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 6, 2025

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework

Published on: July 24, 2016

Area-based conservation in the twenty-first century.

Sean L Maxwell¹, Victor Cazalis², Nigel Dudley^3,4

¹Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia. smaxwell@uq.edu.au.

|October 8, 2020

Summary

Area-based conservation efforts are expanding but have limited success in protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Future success requires better ecological representation, management effectiveness, and collaboration with Indigenous peoples and local communities.

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Area of Science:

Conservation science
Biodiversity
Ecosystem services

Background:

Global biodiversity crisis requires transformative conservation strategies.
Area-based conservation (protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures) is a key strategy.
Current efforts face challenges in ecological representation and management effectiveness.

Observation:

Since 2010, protected area expansion shows limited success in covering diverse biodiversity elements (ecoregions, threatened species, Key Biodiversity Areas, wilderness).
Coverage of vital ecosystem services (fisheries, carbon sequestration) also remains insufficient.
Indigenous peoples, community groups, and private initiatives are crucial for conservation success.

Findings:

Protected area expansion has not adequately increased coverage for biodiversity or ecosystem services.
Existing conservation strategies fall short of stemming biodiversity loss effectively.
Collaboration and integration with diverse conservation actors are essential.

Implications:

Future area-based conservation must improve ecological representation and management effectiveness to meet global biodiversity goals.
Enhanced collaboration with Indigenous peoples, local communities, and private initiatives is critical.
Long-term success necessitates adequate financing, climate change adaptation, and integration into broader land, water, and sea management policies.