TY - JOUR
T1 - Built-up areas within and around protected areas: Global patterns and 40-year trends
AU - Fuente, Begoña De La
AU - Bertzky, Bastian
AU - Delli, Giacomo
AU - Mandrici, Andrea
AU - Conti, Michele
AU - Florczyk, Aneta J.
AU - Freire, Sergio
AU - Schiavina, Marcello
AU - Bastin, Lucy
AU - Dubois, Grégoire
N1 - ©2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CCBY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Protected areas (PAs) are a key strategy in global efforts to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services that are critical for human well-being. Most PAs have some built-up structures within their boundaries or in surrounding areas, ranging from individual buildings to villages, towns and cities. These structures, and the associated human activities, can exert direct and indirect pressures on PAs. Here we present the first global analysis of current patterns and observed long-term trends in built-up areas within terrestrial PAs and their immediate surroundings. We calculate for each PA larger than 5 km2 and for its 10-km unprotected buffer zone the percentage of land area covered by built-up areas in 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014. We find that globally built-up areas cover only 0.12% of PA extent and a much higher 2.71% of the unprotected buffers as of 2014, compared to 0.6% of all land (protected or unprotected). Built-up extent in and around PAs is highest in Europe and Asia, and lowest in Africa and Oceania. Built-up area percentage is higher in coastal and small PAs, and lower in older PAs and in PAs with stricter management categories. From 1975 to 2014, the increase in built-up area was 23 times larger in the 10-km unprotected buffers than within PAs. Our findings show that the development of built-up structures remains limited within the boundaries of PAs but highlight the need to carefully manage the considerable pressure that PAs face from their immediate surroundings.
AB - Protected areas (PAs) are a key strategy in global efforts to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services that are critical for human well-being. Most PAs have some built-up structures within their boundaries or in surrounding areas, ranging from individual buildings to villages, towns and cities. These structures, and the associated human activities, can exert direct and indirect pressures on PAs. Here we present the first global analysis of current patterns and observed long-term trends in built-up areas within terrestrial PAs and their immediate surroundings. We calculate for each PA larger than 5 km2 and for its 10-km unprotected buffer zone the percentage of land area covered by built-up areas in 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2014. We find that globally built-up areas cover only 0.12% of PA extent and a much higher 2.71% of the unprotected buffers as of 2014, compared to 0.6% of all land (protected or unprotected). Built-up extent in and around PAs is highest in Europe and Asia, and lowest in Africa and Oceania. Built-up area percentage is higher in coastal and small PAs, and lower in older PAs and in PAs with stricter management categories. From 1975 to 2014, the increase in built-up area was 23 times larger in the 10-km unprotected buffers than within PAs. Our findings show that the development of built-up structures remains limited within the boundaries of PAs but highlight the need to carefully manage the considerable pressure that PAs face from their immediate surroundings.
KW - Protected areas
KW - Urbanization
KW - Built-up areas
KW - Human settlements
KW - Biodiversity conservation
KW - Human pressure
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2351989420308325
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092341919&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01291
DO - 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01291
M3 - Article
SN - 2351-9894
VL - 24
JO - Global Ecology and Conservation
JF - Global Ecology and Conservation
M1 - e01291
ER -