Tal Polaka, James E.M. Watsonb, Richard A. Fuller,a Liana N

Efficient expansion of global protected areas
requires simultaneous planning for species
1
and ecosystems
a
Polak ,
b
Watson ,
a
Fuller,
a
Joseph ,
Tal
James E.M.
Richard A.
Liana N.
Tara G.
a,c
a
d
a,c
Martin , Hugh P. Possingham , Oscar Venter and Josie Carwardine
aARC
Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia; bSchool of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management,
University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia; cCSIRO Land and Water, Box 2583, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia; dCentre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University,
Cairns, QLD 4878
Introduction & aim
Methods & references
• Protected areas are important for the conservation of both species
and ecosystems.
Planning scenarios:
• However, many representation gaps exist in today ’s protected areas
network.
Current
situation
t.polak@uq.edu.au
Bioregions
Adding PA to achieve
10% targets for 85
bioregions
Adding PA to achieve
persistence targets for
1320 species
Scenario # 4
• The CBD promotes the use of environmental surrogates to plan
protected areas.
Adding bioregions
Adding PA to achieve 10%
targets for 85 bioregions
To download
the paper scan:
Scenario # 1
Threatened species
• Another goal is to reduce extinctions and protect threatened species.
• Here, we conduct a novel assessment of the impact of ecosystembased planning and the global CBD goals on protected area outcomes
for threatened species at the country level upon which they are
implemented.
Tal Polak
Scenario # 2
• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)1 targeted the expansion of
current protected areas to cover of 17% of the area of the world’s
ecosystems.
• However, the cost-efficiency of this ecosystem-based planning is
unknown.
Scenario # 0
Scenario # 5
Scenario # 3
Simultaneously
Adding species
Adding PA to achieve
targets for both 1320
species and 85
bioregions
Adding PA to achieve
persistence targets
for 1320 species
We used a database of 1320 threatened species and 85 of Australia’s bioregions, we set
targets for threatened species based on the size of their distribution area, their threat status
and a 10% targets for the bioregions. We used MARXAN to find the optimal planning solution
for each planning scenario and trade-off analyses. PA = Protected areas
1Polak
T., Watson J.E.M., Fuller R.A. et al. (2015) Efficient expansion of global protected areas requires simultaneous planning for species and
ecosystems. 2.
2Convention on Biological Diversity. (2010) Report of the tenth meeting of the conference of the parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The tenth meeting of the conference of the parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Nagoya, Japan.
Results
Area = cost
% of bioregional targets met
% of species targets met
100
160
168.3
161.1
120
1616.6
100
100
144.1
140
80
118.6
120
70.6
60
100
89.1
40
34.1
80
24.3
60
20
Targets adequately met (%)
Land covered in protected areas
(Million ha)
180
1
2
Protected areas network
maps
The maps present the best
expansion planning for each of
the following scenarios (see
methods):
9.7
40
0
Current situation Achieving 10%
bioregion targets
Achieving
Achieving both
Achieving
Achieving
threatened
sets oftargets
threatened
bioregion target
species coverage simultaneously species target then species
targets
then bioregion
targets
targets
Cost-efficiency analysis
• Current protected areas underrepresent many biodiversity features
• Simultaneous planning for both targets will achieve the most cost-effective solution.
• Planning first for ecosystems and then filling the gaps to meet threatened species targets will
result in the most ineffective solution.
5
1 - Ecosystem-base planning
2 - Species-base planning
5 – Simultaneous planning
Additional protected areas
Existing Protected areas
Discussion
• Planning using the CBD’s ecosystem-based approach will require more and achieve less than using species information to
prioritize protected areas selection
• The CBD’s 17% area target is not enough and full representation will require 21% of Australia’s terrestrial area.
• Our results have significant implications for how nations should interpret the CBD’s strategic plan2.
• We urge countries to apply a multi-targets approach when planning their protected areas expansion and shouldn’t relay solely
on ecosystem-based information and targets.