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Effectiveness of protected areas in conserving tropical forest birds.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Princé, Karine 
Mihoub, Jean-Baptiste 
Butchart, Stuart HM  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1140-4049

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) are the cornerstones of global biodiversity conservation efforts, but to fulfil this role they must be effective at conserving the ecosystems and species that occur within their boundaries. Adequate monitoring datasets that allow comparing biodiversity between protected and unprotected sites are lacking in tropical regions. Here we use the largest citizen science biodiversity dataset - eBird - to quantify the extent to which protected areas in eight tropical forest biodiversity hotspots are effective at retaining bird diversity. We find generally positive effects of protection on the diversity of bird species that are forest-dependent, endemic to the hotspots, or threatened or Near Threatened, but not on overall bird species richness. Furthermore, we show that in most of the hotspots examined this benefit is driven by protected areas preventing both forest loss and degradation. Our results provide evidence that, on average, protected areas contribute measurably to conserving bird species in some of the world's most diverse and threatened terrestrial ecosystems.

Description

Keywords

Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation of Natural Resources, Forests, Geography, South America, Species Specificity

Journal Title

Nat Commun

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

11

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC