Remarkable conservation effects for Amazon protected areas in vegetation growth trend, stability, and vulnerability

• Amazon PAs were comprehensively evaluated by trend, stability, and vulnerability. • PAs exerted remarkable conservation effects on Amazon vegetation since 2000. • Vegetation growth enhanced yet stability reduced and vulnerability increased. • Vegetation declined while conservation improved across SP, NSP, and IP PAs. Protected Areas (PAs) have been widely recognized as a crucial strategy to conserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services and functions, especially for the Amazon basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Assessing the conservation effectiveness of Amazonian PAs is therefore imperative, given intensifying disturbances observed in the Amazon basin. However, current studies typically focus solely on vegetation growth trend while neglecting ecological vulnerability and ecosystem stability, potentially leading to biased conclusions. Here, we evaluated the conservation effectiveness of Amazon PAs since 2000 by introducing a comprehensive Composite Indicator (CI) that integrates vegetation growth trend, stability, and vulnerability dimensions into consideration. Results indicate that 87 % of the analyzed pixels within Amazon PAs exhibited greening trends since 2000, while browning trends were primarily concentrated in the northwestern Amazon PAs. A ‘green paradox’ was observed across the Amazon PAs, where the higher vegetation growth trends were associated with increased vulnerability and decreased stability, highlighting the necessity of incorporating vulnerability and stability when assessing conservation effectiveness of PAs. We reported the conservation effectiveness in Amazon PAs since 2000 to be significant, with vegetation status as indicated by the CI metric being higher inside than outside PAs in 72 % of Amazon PAs. PAs with better vegetation status outside than inside were distributed along a southwestern-to-northeastern transect of the Amazon basin. Notably, vegetation status declined while conservation effectiveness improved from the northwestern to southeastern Amazon PAs. Moreover, PAs in the southeastern Amazon exhibited deteriorating vegetation status, i.e., increasing vulnerability with decreasing trend and stability, yet maintained significant conservation effectiveness. Focusing on PA categories, vegetation status gradually declined while conservation effectiveness continuously improved across strictly protected, not strictly protected, and indigenous-managed PA categories. Our results underscore the remarkable conservation effectiveness of Amazon PAs since 2000 and provide a theoretical basis for optimizing resource allocation and formulating policy for the Amazon basin.