Conservation Letters
Conservation Letters
5 years ago

Examining protected area effectiveness in Sumatra: importance of regulations governing unprotected lands

D. Ratnasari, A. Besse-Rimba, K. M. Carlson, L.M. Curran, D.L.A. Gaveau, N. Leader-Williams, P. Wells, G.D. Paoli
Several studies suggest that protected areas conserve forests because deforestation rates are lower inside than outside protected area boundaries. Such benefits may be overestimated when deforestation rates within protected areas are contrasted with rates in lands where forest conversion is sanctioned. Here, we re-examine protected area performance by disentangling the effects of land use regulations surrounding the 110,000 km2 protected area network in Sumatra, Indonesia.We compared 1990–2000 deforestation rates across: (i) protected areas; (ii) unprotected areas sanctioned for conversion; and (iii) unprotected production areas where commercial logging is permitted but conversion is not. Deforestation rates were lower in protected areas than in conversion areas (Mean: -19.8%; 95%C.I.: -29.7%− -10.0%; P<0.001), but did not differ from production areas (Mean: -3.3%; 95%C.I.: -9.6%− 2.6%; P= 0.273).The measured protection impact of Sumatran protected areas differs with land use regulations governing unprotected lands used for comparisons. If these regulations are not considered, protected areas will appear increasingly effective as larger unprotected forested areas are sanctioned for conversion and deforested. In the 1990s, production areas were as effective as protected areas at reducing deforestation. We discuss implications of these findings for carbon conservation.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00220.x

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.