Abstract
The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the worlds major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve health: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 290-293 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 489 |
Issue number | 7415 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 13 Sep 2012 |
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Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas. / Laurance, William F.; Carolina Useche, D.; Rendeiro, Julio; Kalka, Margareta; Bradshaw, Corey J.A.; Sloan, Sean P.; Laurance, Susan G.; Campbell, Mason; Abernethy, Kate; Alvarez, Patricia; Arroyo-Rodriguez, Victor; Ashton, Peter; Benítez-Malvido, Julieta; Blom, Allard; Bobo, Kadiri S.; Cannon, Charles H.; Cao, Min; Carroll, Richard; Chapman, Colin; Coates, Rosamond; Cords, Marina; Danielsen, Finn; De Dijn, Bart; Dinerstein, Eric; Donnelly, Maureen A.; Edwards, David; Edwards, Felicity; Farwig, Nina; Fashing, Peter; Forget, Pierre Michel; Foster, Mercedes; Gale, George; Harris, David; Harrison, Rhett; Hart, John; Karpanty, Sarah; John Kress, W.; Krishnaswamy, Jagdish; Logsdon, Willis; Lovett, Jon; Magnusson, William; Maisels, Fiona; Marshall, Andrew R.; McClearn, Deedra; Mudappa, Divya; Nielsen, Martin R.; Pearson, Richard; Pitman, Nigel; Van Der Ploeg, Jan; Plumptre, Andrew; Poulsen, John; Quesada, Mauricio; Rainey, Hugo; Robinson, Douglas; Roetgers, Christiane; Rovero, Francesco; Scatena, Frederick; Schulze, Christian; Sheil, Douglas; Struhsaker, Thomas; Terborgh, John; Thomas, Duncan; Timm, Robert; Nicolas Urbina-Cardona, J.; Vasudevan, Karthikeyan; Joseph Wright, S.; Carlos Arias-G., Juan; Arroyo, Luzmila; Ashton, Mark; Auzel, Philippe; Babaasa, Dennis; Babweteera, Fred; Baker, Patrick; Banki, Olaf; Bass, Margot; Bila-Isia, Inogwabini; Blake, Stephen; Brockelman, Warren; Brokaw, Nicholas; Brühl, Carsten A.; Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh; Chao, Jung Tai; Chave, Jerome; Chellam, Ravi; Clark, Connie J.; Clavijo, José; Congdon, Robert; Corlett, Richard; Dattaraja, H. S.; Dave, Chittaranjan; Davies, Glyn; De Mello Beisiegel, Beatriz; De Nazaré Paes Da Silva, Rosa; Di Fiore, Anthony; Diesmos, Arvin; Dirzo, Rodolfo; Doran-Sheehy, Diane; Eaton, Mitchell; Emmons, Louise; Estrada, Alejandro; Ewango, Corneille; Fedigan, Linda; Feer, François; Fruth, Barbara; Giacalone Willis, Jacalyn; Goodale, Uromi; Goodman, Steven; Guix, Juan C.; Guthiga, Paul; Haber, William; Hamer, Keith; Herbinger, Ilka; Hill, Jane; Huang, Zhongliang; Fang Sun, I.; Ickes, Kalan; Itoh, Akira; Ivanauskas, Natália; Jackes, Betsy; Janovec, John; Janzen, Daniel; Jiangming, Mo; Jin, Chen; Jones, Trevor; Justiniano, Hermes; Kalko, Elisabeth; Kasangaki, Aventino; Killeen, Timothy; King, Hen Biau; Klop, Erik; Knott, Cheryl; Koné, Inza; Kudavidanage, Enoka; Lahoz Da Silva Ribeiro, José; Lattke, John; Laval, Richard; Lawton, Robert; Leal, Miguel; Leighton, Mark; Lentino, Miguel; Leonel, Cristiane; Lindsell, Jeremy; Ling-Ling, Lee; Eduard Linsenmair, K.; Losos, Elizabeth; Lugo, Ariel; Lwanga, Jeremiah; MacK, Andrew L.; Martins, Marlucia; Scott McGraw, W.; McNab, Roan; Montag, Luciano; Myers Thompson, Jo; Nabe-Nielsen, Jacob; Nakagawa, Michiko; Nepal, Sanjay; Norconk, Marilyn; Novotny, Vojtech; O'Donnell, Sean; Opiang, Muse; Ouboter, Paul; Parker, Kenneth; Parthasarathy, N.; Pisciotta, Kátia; Prawiradilaga, Dewi; Pringle, Catherine; Rajathurai, Subaraj; Reichard, Ulrich; Reinartz, Gay; Renton, Katherine; Reynolds, Glen; Reynolds, Vernon; Riley, Erin; Rödel, Mark Oliver; Rothman, Jessica; Round, Philip; Sakai, Shoko; Sanaiotti, Tania; Savini, Tommaso; Schaab, Gertrud; Seidensticker, John; Siaka, Alhaji; Silman, Miles R.; Smith, Thomas B.; De Almeida, Samuel Soares; Sodhi, Navjot; Stanford, Craig; Stewart, Kristine; Stokes, Emma; Stoner, Kathryn E.; Sukumar, Raman; Surbeck, Martin; Tobler, Mathias; Tscharntke, Teja; Turkalo, Andrea; Umapathy, Govindaswamy; Van Weerd, Merlijn; Vega Rivera, Jorge; Venkataraman, Meena; Venn, Linda; Verea, Carlos; Volkmer De Castilho, Carolina; Waltert, Matthias; Wang, Benjamin; Watts, David; Weber, William; West, Paige; Whitacre, David; Whitney, Ken; Wilkie, David; Williams, Stephen; Wright, Debra D.; Wright, Patricia; Xiankai, Lu; Yonzon, Pralad; Zamzani, Franky.
In: Nature, Vol. 489, No. 7415, 13.09.2012, p. 290-293.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas
AU - Laurance, William F.
AU - Carolina Useche, D.
AU - Rendeiro, Julio
AU - Kalka, Margareta
AU - Bradshaw, Corey J.A.
AU - Sloan, Sean P.
AU - Laurance, Susan G.
AU - Campbell, Mason
AU - Abernethy, Kate
AU - Alvarez, Patricia
AU - Arroyo-Rodriguez, Victor
AU - Ashton, Peter
AU - Benítez-Malvido, Julieta
AU - Blom, Allard
AU - Bobo, Kadiri S.
AU - Cannon, Charles H.
AU - Cao, Min
AU - Carroll, Richard
AU - Chapman, Colin
AU - Coates, Rosamond
AU - Cords, Marina
AU - Danielsen, Finn
AU - De Dijn, Bart
AU - Dinerstein, Eric
AU - Donnelly, Maureen A.
AU - Edwards, David
AU - Edwards, Felicity
AU - Farwig, Nina
AU - Fashing, Peter
AU - Forget, Pierre Michel
AU - Foster, Mercedes
AU - Gale, George
AU - Harris, David
AU - Harrison, Rhett
AU - Hart, John
AU - Karpanty, Sarah
AU - John Kress, W.
AU - Krishnaswamy, Jagdish
AU - Logsdon, Willis
AU - Lovett, Jon
AU - Magnusson, William
AU - Maisels, Fiona
AU - Marshall, Andrew R.
AU - McClearn, Deedra
AU - Mudappa, Divya
AU - Nielsen, Martin R.
AU - Pearson, Richard
AU - Pitman, Nigel
AU - Van Der Ploeg, Jan
AU - Plumptre, Andrew
AU - Poulsen, John
AU - Quesada, Mauricio
AU - Rainey, Hugo
AU - Robinson, Douglas
AU - Roetgers, Christiane
AU - Rovero, Francesco
AU - Scatena, Frederick
AU - Schulze, Christian
AU - Sheil, Douglas
AU - Struhsaker, Thomas
AU - Terborgh, John
AU - Thomas, Duncan
AU - Timm, Robert
AU - Nicolas Urbina-Cardona, J.
AU - Vasudevan, Karthikeyan
AU - Joseph Wright, S.
AU - Carlos Arias-G., Juan
AU - Arroyo, Luzmila
AU - Ashton, Mark
AU - Auzel, Philippe
AU - Babaasa, Dennis
AU - Babweteera, Fred
AU - Baker, Patrick
AU - Banki, Olaf
AU - Bass, Margot
AU - Bila-Isia, Inogwabini
AU - Blake, Stephen
AU - Brockelman, Warren
AU - Brokaw, Nicholas
AU - Brühl, Carsten A.
AU - Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh
AU - Chao, Jung Tai
AU - Chave, Jerome
AU - Chellam, Ravi
AU - Clark, Connie J.
AU - Clavijo, José
AU - Congdon, Robert
AU - Corlett, Richard
AU - Dattaraja, H. S.
AU - Dave, Chittaranjan
AU - Davies, Glyn
AU - De Mello Beisiegel, Beatriz
AU - De Nazaré Paes Da Silva, Rosa
AU - Di Fiore, Anthony
AU - Diesmos, Arvin
AU - Dirzo, Rodolfo
AU - Doran-Sheehy, Diane
AU - Eaton, Mitchell
AU - Emmons, Louise
AU - Estrada, Alejandro
AU - Ewango, Corneille
AU - Fedigan, Linda
AU - Feer, François
AU - Fruth, Barbara
AU - Giacalone Willis, Jacalyn
AU - Goodale, Uromi
AU - Goodman, Steven
AU - Guix, Juan C.
AU - Guthiga, Paul
AU - Haber, William
AU - Hamer, Keith
AU - Herbinger, Ilka
AU - Hill, Jane
AU - Huang, Zhongliang
AU - Fang Sun, I.
AU - Ickes, Kalan
AU - Itoh, Akira
AU - Ivanauskas, Natália
AU - Jackes, Betsy
AU - Janovec, John
AU - Janzen, Daniel
AU - Jiangming, Mo
AU - Jin, Chen
AU - Jones, Trevor
AU - Justiniano, Hermes
AU - Kalko, Elisabeth
AU - Kasangaki, Aventino
AU - Killeen, Timothy
AU - King, Hen Biau
AU - Klop, Erik
AU - Knott, Cheryl
AU - Koné, Inza
AU - Kudavidanage, Enoka
AU - Lahoz Da Silva Ribeiro, José
AU - Lattke, John
AU - Laval, Richard
AU - Lawton, Robert
AU - Leal, Miguel
AU - Leighton, Mark
AU - Lentino, Miguel
AU - Leonel, Cristiane
AU - Lindsell, Jeremy
AU - Ling-Ling, Lee
AU - Eduard Linsenmair, K.
AU - Losos, Elizabeth
AU - Lugo, Ariel
AU - Lwanga, Jeremiah
AU - MacK, Andrew L.
AU - Martins, Marlucia
AU - Scott McGraw, W.
AU - McNab, Roan
AU - Montag, Luciano
AU - Myers Thompson, Jo
AU - Nabe-Nielsen, Jacob
AU - Nakagawa, Michiko
AU - Nepal, Sanjay
AU - Norconk, Marilyn
AU - Novotny, Vojtech
AU - O'Donnell, Sean
AU - Opiang, Muse
AU - Ouboter, Paul
AU - Parker, Kenneth
AU - Parthasarathy, N.
AU - Pisciotta, Kátia
AU - Prawiradilaga, Dewi
AU - Pringle, Catherine
AU - Rajathurai, Subaraj
AU - Reichard, Ulrich
AU - Reinartz, Gay
AU - Renton, Katherine
AU - Reynolds, Glen
AU - Reynolds, Vernon
AU - Riley, Erin
AU - Rödel, Mark Oliver
AU - Rothman, Jessica
AU - Round, Philip
AU - Sakai, Shoko
AU - Sanaiotti, Tania
AU - Savini, Tommaso
AU - Schaab, Gertrud
AU - Seidensticker, John
AU - Siaka, Alhaji
AU - Silman, Miles R.
AU - Smith, Thomas B.
AU - De Almeida, Samuel Soares
AU - Sodhi, Navjot
AU - Stanford, Craig
AU - Stewart, Kristine
AU - Stokes, Emma
AU - Stoner, Kathryn E.
AU - Sukumar, Raman
AU - Surbeck, Martin
AU - Tobler, Mathias
AU - Tscharntke, Teja
AU - Turkalo, Andrea
AU - Umapathy, Govindaswamy
AU - Van Weerd, Merlijn
AU - Vega Rivera, Jorge
AU - Venkataraman, Meena
AU - Venn, Linda
AU - Verea, Carlos
AU - Volkmer De Castilho, Carolina
AU - Waltert, Matthias
AU - Wang, Benjamin
AU - Watts, David
AU - Weber, William
AU - West, Paige
AU - Whitacre, David
AU - Whitney, Ken
AU - Wilkie, David
AU - Williams, Stephen
AU - Wright, Debra D.
AU - Wright, Patricia
AU - Xiankai, Lu
AU - Yonzon, Pralad
AU - Zamzani, Franky
PY - 2012/9/13
Y1 - 2012/9/13
N2 - The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the worlds major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve health: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.
AB - The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the worlds major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve health: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84866154510&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nature11318
DO - 10.1038/nature11318
M3 - Article
C2 - 22832582
AN - SCOPUS:84866154510
VL - 489
SP - 290
EP - 293
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
SN - 0028-0836
IS - 7415
ER -