Threatened terrestrial vertebrates are exposed to human pressures across 94% of Europe’s protected land

作者：Dobrochna M. Delsen, W. Daniel Kissling, James R. Allan · 发表于：bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1101/2020.08.25.266379 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Wildlife Ecology and Conservation、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Protected areas (PAs) are the last refuges for wild biodiversity, yet human pressures (or threats) are increasingly prevalent within their boundaries. Human pressures have the potential to negatively impact species and undermine their conservation, but their overlap with sensitive threatened species in PAs remains rarely quantified. Here, we analyse the co-occurrence of nineteen threatening human activities within the distributions of 146 threatened terrestrial vertebrates in the European Union (EU), accounting for species-specific sensitivities to each pressure and thereby mapping potential human impacts on species within EU PAs. We find that human pressures extend across > 1.022 million km 2 (94.5%) of EU protected land, with potential negative impacts on threatened species across 1.015 million km 2 (93.8%). A total of 122 out of 146 species (84%) have > 50% of their EU protected ranges potentially impacted, and 83 out of 146 species (57%) more than 90% of their protected range. More species have a smaller proportion of their protected range potentially impacted in Natura2000 sites than in non-Natura2000 sites, and the same is true for species in nature reserves and wilderness areas compared to less strictly managed PAs. Our results show that threatened species in Europe’s PAs are exposed to immense human pressures, and suggest that areas designated for species conservation are ineffective for halting biodiversity decline. We recommend that the EU Biodiversity Strateg...