Urgent climate action is needed to ensure effectiveness of protected areas for biodiversity benefits
<h2>Summary</h2> The intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change pose a significant sustainability challenge, threatening ecosystems and human well-being globally. Yet, the nuanced interplay between these challenges is often understated in policy dialogs. Global biodiversity targets, including 30% protection of the Earth's surface by 2030, may fall short without robust climate change mitigation. Here, we illustrate that conservation through protected areas can effectively preserve forest productivity and carbon capture, which depend on tree diversity. However, failing to mitigate climate change diminishes the effectiveness of these areas, especially in warmer biomes. Even with optimal protected area selection, preserving tree diversity-dependent productivity could be compromised without significant climate change mitigation. Our findings emphasize the need to integrate climate change mitigation into biodiversity conservation policies to ensure the success of the 30 × 30 targets and sustain the ecosystem benefits biodiversity provides to society.
Authors
- Haruka Ohashi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8265-6107)
- Laura E. Dee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0471-1371)
- Peter B. Reich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4424-662X)
- Andrew Gonzalez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6075-8081)
- Forest Isbell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9689-769X)
- Akira S. Mori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8422-1198)
- Rupert Seidl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3338-3402)
- Yann Hautier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4347-7741)
- Michel Loreau
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Peking University (CN)
- Sustainability Institute (ZA)
- Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (JP)
- Schön Klinik Berchtesgadener Land (DE)
- Station d’Écologie Théorique et Expérimentale (FR)
- Institute for Social Research (NO)
- McGill University (CA)
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- One Earth
- Published
- 2024-09-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.08.003
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Economic and Environmental Valuation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.90
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Ichimura Foundation of New Technology
- Laboratoire d'Excellence TULIP
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- National Academy of Sciences
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- European Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- H2020 European Research Council