Functional connectivity of the world's protected areas

Area of Science:

• Conservation Science
• Landscape Ecology
• Wildlife Movement Ecology

Background:

• Global policies emphasize connecting protected areas (PAs) to maintain wildlife and gene flow across landscapes.
• The effectiveness of current PA networks in supporting animal movement and identifying critical conservation areas remains largely unquantified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To map the functional connectivity of global terrestrial PAs for moving mammals.
• To assess national PA connectivity and identify crucial areas for conservation efforts.

Main Methods:

• Utilized spatial analysis to map functional connectivity across the world's terrestrial PAs.
• Quantified national PA connectivity by analyzing mammal movement patterns.
• Identified critical areas for mammal movement and assessed their overlap with existing PAs and human modification.

Main Results:

• Mitigating human footprint shows greater potential to improve PA connectivity than solely adding new PAs, with combined strategies yielding maximum benefits.
• A significant portion of globally important mammal movement areas remain unprotected.
• 71% of critical movement areas overlap with global biodiversity priority zones, and 6% are in moderately to highly human-modified landscapes.

Conclusions:

• Conservation strategies should prioritize mitigating human impact and restoring critical connectivity areas to enhance PA effectiveness.
• Protecting and restoring these key movement corridors can safeguard PA connectivity and support broader global conservation goals.
• Integrating connectivity conservation with biodiversity priorities is essential for landscape-level conservation success.