Integrating Multiple Spatial Datasets to Assess Protected Areas: Lessons Learnt from the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA)

Integrating Multiple Spatial Datasets to Assess Protected Areas: Lessons Learnt from the Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA)

The Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA) has been developed to support the European Union’s efforts in strengthening our capacity to mobilize and use biodiversity data so that they are readily accessible to policymakers, managers, researchers and other users. Assessing protected areas for biodiversity conservation at national, regional and international scales implies that methods and...

Protected areas – protected species?

Wild life: The elusive fosa (Cryptoprocta ferox) is the top predator in the dry deciduous forests of Madagascar, but very little was known about its biology until the 1990s. The presence of volunteer groups studying its role in the forest’s ecology has also helped to protect its habitat. (Photo: Earthwatch/ Luke Dollar.) The world’s latest national park has just been created in the east of Russ...

Planning for Protected Areas Using Spatial and Temporal Metrics

Integrating marine protected areas with catch regulation

Previous models of marine protected areas (MPAs) have generally assumed that there were no existing regulations on catch and have frequently shown that MPAs, by themselves, can be used to maintain both sustainable fish stocks and sustainable harvests. We explore the impact of implementing an MPA in a spatially structured model of a single-species fish stock that is regulated by total allowable ...

Protected areas and poverty

Protected areas are controversial because they are so important for conservation and because they distribute fortune and misfortune unevenly. The nature of that distribution, as well as the terrain of protected areas themselves, have been vigorously contested. In particular, the relationship between protected areas and poverty is a long-running debate in academic and policy circles. We review t...