Protected areas (including areas that are nominally fully protected and those managed for multiple uses) encompass about a quarter of the total tropical forest estate. Despite growing interest in the relative value of community-managed lands and protected areas, knowledge about the biodiversity value that each sustains remains scarce in the biodiversity-rich tropics. We investigated the species...

Agroecosystems have traditionally been considered incompatible with biological conservation goals, and often been excluded from spatial conservation prioritization strategies. The consequences for the representativeness of identified priority areas have been little explored. Here, we evaluate these for biodiversity and carbon storage representation when agricultural land areas are excluded from...

agricultural land conversion (alc) has been introduced as one of the most important factorsaffecting ecosystem. this type of conversion has led to several challenges in agricultural development andhuman life. monitoring alc plays a crucial role when dealing with such challenges. the main objective of thisstudywas to monitor the trend ofalc in theqazvin province located in northwest iran from 19...

BACKGROUND Private land conservation is an essential strategy for biodiversity protection in the USA, where half of the federally listed species have at least 80% of their habitat on private lands. We investigated the alignment between private land protection conducted by the world's largest land trust (The Nature Conservancy) and the science driven identification of priority areas for conserva...

The general intent of these studies is to assess whether or not a slope is considered to be stable and, if not, to provide a “safe” set-back distance from the slope crest behind which structures and other facilities can be constructed. Unstable slopes and the land located between the unstable slope and the set-back line are called “Hazard Lands.” In a broad sense, Hazard Lands are those at risk...

Most evaluations of the effectiveness of PAs have relied on indirect estimates based on comparisons between protected and unprotected areas. Such methods can be biased when protection is not randomly assigned. We add to the growing literature on the impact of PAs by answering the following research questions: What is the impact of Chilean PAs on deforestation which occurred between 1986 and 201...

A move by the US government to preserve more public lands as wilderness has been welcomed by environmentalists but has angered ranchers, sportsmen and energy companies that fear access to land will be reduced. The new policy, initiated at the end of last year, directs the Bureau of Land Management to survey its vast holdings from Alaska to Arizona in search of unspoilt wildlife areas. The agenc...

Conservation scientists recognize that additional protected areas are needed to maintain biological diversity and ecological processes. As regional conservation planners embark on recommending additional areas for protection in formal conservation reserves, it is important to evaluate candidate lands for their role in building a resilient protected areas system of the future. Here, we evaluate ...