Protected area management has significant spillover effects on vegetation.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Conservation Biology
• Environmental Management

Background:

• Global biodiversity loss necessitates expanding protected areas, as outlined by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
• Protected areas offer benefits to adjacent human communities, yet policy and management strategies to support these benefits are underexplored.
• Vegetation spillovers, defined as vegetation changes outside protected areas due to their existence, are a key ecosystem service.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors influencing the magnitude of vegetation spillovers from Australian protected areas.
• To address the gap in understanding how policy and management can enhance benefits from protected areas to local communities.
• To provide an empirical basis for monitoring and accounting schemes for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of vegetation spillover effects from 12,513 candidate Australian protected areas.
• Statistical modeling to identify predictors of spillover magnitude, including protected area type, local, and contextual variables.
• Assessment of vegetation cover changes in 2020 across 10 classes to quantify spillover effects.

Main Results:

• In 2020, 71% of analyzed protected areas exhibited positive vegetation spillovers (≥0.1) in at least one vegetation class.
• Protected area type was a significant predictor of spillover magnitude.
• Protected area type explained 14% of the covariance with local and contextual variables, indicating management influences.

Conclusions:

• Protected areas demonstrably generate positive vegetation spillovers, benefiting adjacent ecosystems and potentially human communities.
• Internal management practices within protected areas significantly moderate spillover effects.
• Findings support the explicit inclusion of spillover effects in global policy frameworks and monitoring schemes for conservation.